Medicaid

See the following -

Feds Look to Health Data Analytics for Innovation Help

Walker Duncan | Nashville Post | November 6, 2011

It’s rare to hear someone refer to a conference presentation from a government bureaucrat as “a treat.” But, that is just how numerous observers have described a recent speech by Todd Park, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “Entrepreneur in Residence” and chief technology officer. Read More »

Followup: Medicaid Probably Does Improve Health Outcomes After All

Kevin Drum | Mother Jones | May 1, 2013

I've now read the new study of the Oregon Medicaid experiment, as well as some additional commentary on it, and I think some of the results are important enough that they deserve a new post, not just updates to the previous post. Read More »

For Docs, Hospitals And State, Growing Pains In Medicaid IT

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 12, 2013

Five months after going live with some functionality problems, North Carolina’s new Medicaid information management system is still struggling to get up to speed, leaving some providers with headaches and putting pressure on a certification timeline, an audit has found. Read More »

Forget Obamacare: Vermont Wants To Bring Single Payer To America

Sarah Kliff | Vox | April 9, 2014

"If Vermont gets single-payer health care right, which I believe we will, other states will follow," Vermont Gov. Shumlin predicted in a recent interview. "If we screw it up, it will set back this effort for a long time.

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GAO Follows The EHR Incentive Money Trail

Diana Manos | Government Health IT | December 20, 2012

A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows the median Medicaid EHR incentive payment received by hospitals in 2011 was $613,512. Read More »

General Dynamics Closes $960M Vangent Acquisition

Nick Wakeman | Washington Technology | September 30, 2011

General Dynamics Corp. has closed its $960 million acquisition of Vangent Inc. in a move that builds out GD’s health care IT business. The company becomes part of General Dynamics IT and creates a health care business that stretches across both civilian and defense agencies. Read More »

Goal of NYU-Continuum Hospital Mega-Merger: Raising Prices

Avik Roy | Forbes | June 8, 2012

On Wednesday, two big New York City hospital chains—New York University’s Langone Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners—announced that they were looking into merging into one mega-entity...There is only one reason why these two hospital chains are linking arms: to force insurers and patients to accept higher prices for their services. Read More »

Grading the Public Options That Already Exist

Sabrina Shankman | Pro Publica | October 28, 2009

Pundits and politicians from both sides of the fence have been hollering themselves blue about a potential public health care option. Instead of relying on private insurers, the government would insure people itself...Two of the three health care reform bills in Congress have a public option. What might a public option look like in practice? One way to find out is to look at what's already out there. Read More »

Hacking Health Care Records Reaches Epidemic Proportions

Nsikan Akpan | Scientific American | March 29, 2016

In February 2015, Anthem made history when 78.8 million of its customers were hacked. It was the largest health care breach ever, and it opened the floodgates on a landmark year. More than 113 million medical records were compromised last year, according to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) under Health and Human Services. Consider it this way: if each case represented a single individual, one in three Americans would have been a victim...

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Halamka's Next Steps for the National Healthcare IT agenda

At HIMSS, I listened carefully to payers, providers, patients, developers, and researchers. Below is a distillation of what I heard from thousands of stakeholders. It is not partisan and does not criticize the work of any person in industry, government or academia. It reflects the lessons learned from the past 20 years of healthcare IT implementation and policymaking. Knowing where we are now and where we want to be, here are 10 guiding principles.

Halamka: What is the Optimal Future Role for ONC?

As Meaningful Use winds down and incentive dollars are fully spent, what is the optimal role for ONC going forward? Some pundits have suggested that ONC step aside and return all aspects of HIT policy and technology to the private sector.   Others have suggested top down command and control of HIT including centralized governance to ensure interoperability. Harmony is when all parties feel equally good about the path forward. Compromise is when everyone leaves the table equally unhappy. Here’s my view about the future of ONC that includes points from both sides.

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Health Care Spending: A 21st Century Gold Rush

Philip Caper | Bangor Daily News | February 14, 2013

Winston Churchill once remarked, “Americans will always do the right thing, once they’ve exhausted all alternatives.” His observation, at least the second half of it, is proving itself as we continue to struggle with our health care system, especially its out-of-control costs that are crippling the budgets of businesses and government alike. Read More »

Health Care, Consuming And Politics In America

Steffen Schmidt | DesMoinesRegister.com | January 5, 2013

We know that escalating healthcare costs are a huge threat to our national solvency, to budget deficits and the national debt. It is the major political issue as we have seen over the battle for and against ObamaCare. It continues to simmer in the form of coming battles over Medicare and Medicaid. Read More »

Health Information Exchange (HIE) Implementations Encounter Obstacles

Dylan Scott | Governing | February 9, 2012

States are also pursuing diverse policies to address budgetary concerns about HIEs, according to Brookings. Those concerns are substantial: only 10 percent of HIEs self-report that they have a sustainable business model. Even Indiana, one of the oldest and most respected state exchanges, had an operating loss of nearly $275,000 in 2010. 

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Health Insurance: Employers Still In The Game, But What About Patient Health Engagement?

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | Health Populi | November 1, 2011

U.S. employers’ health insurance-response to the nation’s economic downturn has been to shift health costs to employees. This has been especially true in smaller companies that pay lower wages. As employers look to the implementation of health reform in 2014, their responses will be based on local labor market and economic conditions. Read More »