Affordable Care Act (ACA)
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U.S. Ranks First in Health Care Spending, but Cancer Outcomes Do Not Reflect the Investment, Study Finds
The U.S. health care system is characterized-on a global level-by its unsustainable health care spending, which does not necessarily correlate to better outcomes in patients with cancer. With $2.9 trillion spent on U.S. health care in 2013, the United States ranks first in health care spending among the world's leading economies. To investigate the implications of socioeconomic status (SES) and health expenditures on cancer outcomes and mortality, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, led by Jad Chahoud, MD, conducted an ecological study at the state level for three distinct patient populations: breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and all-cancer populations..
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U.S. State Officials In Stealth Mode On Health Exchanges
Mississippi insurance commissioner Mike Chaney is in a tight spot. By law, he is required to implement Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul. But as a Republican from deeply conservative Mississippi - one of 26 states that sued Washington over Obama's Affordable Care Act - Chaney is a target of critics who say he is betraying his party. Read More »
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U.S. To End Coverage Under Health Care Law For Tens Of Thousands
The Obama administration said on Monday that it planned to terminate health insurance for 115,000 people on Oct. 1 because they had failed to prove that they were United States citizens or legal immigrants eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. It also told 363,000 people that they could lose financial aid because their incomes could not be verified...
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Uninsured in U.S. Find More Success via Health Insurance Exchanges (HIX) Run by States
Robyn J. Skrebes of Minneapolis said she was able to sign up for health insurance in about two hours on Monday using the Web site of the state-run insurance exchange in Minnesota, known as MNsure. Read More »
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Universal Healthcare Doesn't Mean Waiting Longer to See A Doctor
A new report from the Commonwealth Fund shows that people in other industrialized nations get doctors' appointments faster than Americans do. Read More »
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US Employers Slashing Worker Hours To Avoid Obamacare Insurance Mandate
Trend sparks fears among low-paid workers that they will be hit twice: by having earnings cut and paying more for healthcare Read More »
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US Hospitals Facing Financial Squeeze-Mass Closures
In the last year, the profitability of U.S. hospitals eroded for the first time since the Great Recession, pushing some closer to and others over the solvency precipice. Revenues are down and costs are up. And these issues appear systemic and entrenched, giving rise to a series of important and relevant questions: How can hospitals adapt? If they do, will they still survive? And, do we as a nation think it’s important to make hospitals accessible, even if they lose money? Read More »
VA, HHS Continue to Invest Heavily in Health IT and Telecommunications Services
Despite across-the-board federal budget cuts in recent years, the departments of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs have continued to invest in new health IT and technology services, according to a recent report from Big Data and analytics firm Govini. Further, the report found that the fiscal year 2017 budget outlook for the two health-focused agencies is strong, with the VA and HSS expected to make technology investments geared toward systems modernization, networks and cybersecurity infrastructure...
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VCs Investing To Heal U.S. Healthcare
The U.S. healthcare system is sick, but increasingly early stage investors are spending money on new technology companies they believe can help provide a cure. Read More »
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Vermont Takes Unprecedented Step to Coordinate Health Care Delivery by Launching a Disruptive Information Sharing Technology with Adoption of PatientPing
The State of Vermont is set to be the first in the nation to announce state-sponsored use of groundbreaking health information technology, PatientPing – taking historic action in remedying the trillion-dollar deficit caused partly by the fragmentation of the American health care system. On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at Vermont Blueprint for Health 2016 in Burlington, VT, PatientPing Founder & CEO Jay Desai, state officials and health care representatives will publicly announce the adoption of PatientPing across in-state health care providers...
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Veterans Health Administration Thinks Key to Interoperability May Be in the Cloud
The giant Veterans Health Administration is poking its head into the cloud to see if therein lies the key to sharing data within and outside of its sprawling healthcare delivery system. The goal of the Digital Health Platform is to pull patient data from the VA, military and commercial electronic health record systems, applications, devices and wearables and send it to a patient's healthcare team in real-time. That would allow patients to more easily obtain health care from physicians and hospitals outside of VA facilities, but some experts say a cloud-based platform also leaves it vulnerable to hackers...
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Veterans Without VA Health Care Eligible For Medicaid Through Obamacare
When Daniel Cruz left the U.S. Marine Corps in August 2006, he became one of thousands of Illinois veterans without health insurance, despite being eligible for coverage through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Read More »
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VistA and Epic: A Tale of Two Systems
Over the last few weeks, access to VA health care for veterans has been all over the news. At the same time, the DoD is moving to procure a replacement EHR system. So it seems there is no time like the present to review a recent RAND case studies report entitled “Redirecting Innovation in U.S. Health Care: Options to Decrease Spending and Increase Value.” The case studies include a chapter comparing America’s two most broadly deployed EHRs: The VA’s VistA and Epic.
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Walgreen, UnitedHealth, Epic Form Carequality To Share Patient Data
How many organizations do we need to facilitate the electronic transfer of patient information from one health care provider to another? A few, it seems. Read More »
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Want Healthcare.gov To Work? Destroy And Rebuild Federal IT Procurement
The conversation started the first week after healthcare.gov launched. Maybe the problem was federal procurement, not Obamacare. Read More »
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