Big Steps by the FDA to Improve Standards of Diagnostic Tests
August 1st 2014Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took important steps to ensure that certain tests used by health care professionals to help diagnose and treat patients provide accurate, consistent and reliable results.
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WHO Says Outbreak of Ebola Virus is Outpacing Control Efforts
August 1st 2014In an ominous warning as fatalities mounted in West Africa from the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday that the disease was moving faster than efforts to curb it, with potentially catastrophic consequences including a "high risk" that it will spread.
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Stakeholders' Interest in Bundled Payment Program Rises
August 1st 2014CMS has announced that it will nearly double the number of candidates in its bundled payment program. As part of the Affordable Care Act, the program aims to reduce care costs and improve patients' quality of care by offering providers with an alternative to the traditional fee-for-service reimbursement model.
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HHS Final Rule Sets ICD-10 Switch for Oct. 1, 2015
August 1st 2014In a final rule (PDF) issued Thursday afternoon, HHS formally set an Oct. 1, 2015, compliance date for conversion to ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codes, incorporating the absolute minimum delay imposed by Congress when it ordered HHS to roll back the conversion date previously set for Oct. 1, 2014.
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HealthCare.gov Has Already Cost $840 Million
August 1st 2014HealthCare.gov, the federal health-exchange website plagued with glitches at its launch, has already cost $840 million to build, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of two task orders and one contract related to building the system.
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House Authorizes Obamacare Lawsuit
July 31st 2014The House passed a resolution Wednesday authorizing a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama's constitutional authority to delay the employer mandate in the federal healthcare reform law. The measure was adopted on a 225-201 largely party-line vote.
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US Hospitals Implement Initiatives to Ease Concerns of an Ebola Outbreak
July 31st 2014According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of the Ebola virus spreading to the United States remains low. Still, many US healthcare stakeholders are now taking steps to ensure that the disease does not spread to state-bound Americans. So far, the disease-which kills 90% of people who become infected with it-has infected more than 1,200 people in 3 West African countries and killed an estimated 700 of them.
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$1,000 Sovaldi Now Hepatitis Treatment of Choice
July 30th 2014Even with insurers reluctant to pay, Sovaldi prescriptions have eclipsed those for all other hepatitis C pills combined in a matter of months, new data from IMS Health indicate. The promise of a real cure, with fewer nasty side effects, has prompted thousands to get treated.
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States That Deny Anti-Psychotics to the Poor Have Lots of Mentally Ill People Behind Bars
July 30th 2014A team of researchers published data Tuesday in the American Journal of Managed Care showing that prior authorization policies in Medicaid programs have significantly higher rates of severe mental illness in their prison populations.
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Vague Definitions of Health Plan and Payer Create Challenges
July 29th 2014Common misuse of the terms health plan and payer is making it difficult for the payer community to comply with the Health Plan Identifier (HPID) final rule, according to the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI).
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Spikes in Uncovered Medical Costs Concern Consumers Under Narrow Networks Plans
July 28th 2014The Obama administration and state insurance commissioners are developing new standards to oversee narrow networks as consumers begin to express concerns of limited physician choice and unexpected out-of-network costs.
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