The Latest
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Hospital beds from Hill-Rom get sensor tech
Sensors continually check patients' heart and respiratory rates and alert providers if their vital signs change.
Health IT -
Deep DiveHospital labor skirmishes — year in review
The year was marked by heated negotiations over staffing and wages. Here's a month-by-month breakdown of how it went down.
Hospital Administration -
SponsoredWhat payers and providers need to know about reverification season
As plans renew and sponsors move into more restricted networks, the likelihood that several patients will have to switch to a different pharmacy is very real.
Payer -
VA invests in medical messaging system, brings services to Walmart
The country's second-largest government agency has also reportedly been in talks with Apple on a deal that would see the tech giant build software for veterans to access their EHRs via their mobile devices.
Health IT -
Middle-income Americans paying more for health insurance
Americans in the South are hardest hit — spending a bigger share of their income on healthcare than other parts of the country.
Finance -
Provider interest in RCM tools growing, survey shows
More than half of providers plan to adopt web payments technology in the coming year, Billing Tree reports.
Health IT -
No single telehealth vendor meeting all customer needs, KLAS says
Recent consolidations within the sector, however, could aid the effort to achieve all-purpose vendors, according to the report.
Health IT -
CMS reinstates risk adjustment program for ACA exchanges
In February, a federal judge in New Mexico vacated the risk adjustment program, namely the statewide average premium in the HHS methodology.
Payer -
National health spending slowed for 2nd straight year, at $3.5T
The spending growth rate, which fell to 3.9% in 2017 from 4.6% in 2016, was primarily held back by slowdowns in use of goods and services, with fewer people insured and getting care.
Finance -
Hospitals speak out against Trump proposed 'public charge' immigration rule
NYC Health + Hospitals said the system could lose up to $362 million the first year following the change. The AHA and the National Association of Community Health Centers have also criticized the plan.
Policy & Regulation -
MedPAC pitches 2% boost in hospital Medicare payments, merged quality incentive program
The adviser to CMS and Congress on Medicare has been focused on the shift to value-based care in recent months. Its new linked proposals are no exception.
Payer -
Dive AwardsHire of the Year: Adam Boehler, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
The founder and former CEO of Landmark Health left a lucrative salary to take CMMI, created under the ACA to test health delivery and payment models, in a new direction.
Policy & Regulation -
Virtual visits led to uptick in overall visits at Massachusetts ACO, study shows
Participants tended to be younger, white and commercially insured, raising concerns that virtual visit programs could increase disparities in access to care.
Health IT -
7 in 10 doctors report HIT-related stress
Primary care physicians have higher levels of HIT stress than other specialties, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Health IT -
Dive AwardsDisruptor of the Year: Amazon
Although some analysts remain skeptical about Amazon's threat to the highly regulated industry, the landscape looks entirely different than it did just one year ago.
Payer -
Uber hires 2 healthcare insiders to help grow NEMT business
The new additions include a longtime industry consultant and a member of rival Lyft's health team.
Health IT -
Telehealth for substance abuse growing quickly, but lags behind mental health usage
A Health Affairs report calls for increased use to address the opioid epidemic, calling low rates a "missed opportunity" to help recovering addicts.
Health IT -
Lack of provider competition raising healthcare prices, Center for American Progress argues
The left-leaning think tank offered suggestions for creating a system that produces more competition with fairer prices, including more regulatory enforcement and site neutral payments.
Finance -
Bipartisan bill introduced in Senate to penalize pharma Medicaid gaming
The incoming leaders of the Senate Finance Committee want to set monetary penalties for drugmakers that misclassify products within Medicaid.
Policy & Regulation -
OIG raises concerns about safety in long-term care hospitals
More than half of harmful events in LTCHs are preventable, according to a new report from the watchdog agency.
Payer -
Hospital docs weigh in on CAR-T reimbursement: 'It's very complicated'
Looming over clinical victories seen at the American Society of Hematology's annual conference was a problematic question: How exactly will health systems pay for these powerful yet pricey therapies?
Payer -
Aetna, Ascension join industry blockchain pilot to improve network directory data
Nearly half of Medicare Advantage directories contain at least one provider location error, according to CMS.
Health IT -
Low nurse staffing levels directly linked to higher patient mortality, study finds
BMJ researchers found that the hazard of death increased by 3% for every day a patient experienced nurse staffing levels below the ward mean.
Hospital Administration -
AHA, AAMC sue over site neutrality rule
The hospital groups say the final rule is harmful to patients, "especially those with the most complex needs and those in vulnerable communities."
Hospital Administration -
Dive AwardsPayer of the Year: Anthem
Frustrated with big unexplainable price differences among providers and what it calls unnecessary and costly emergency room visits, Anthem put in place a series of restraints on access to patients and physicians.
Payer