Medicare

Medicare could have saved $910 million--38 percent--on lab test payments if it would have paid providers at the lowest established rate in each geographic area, according to a report from the Office of the Inspector General. Read More »

Having received many complaints in recent months about vendors and providers engaging in information blocking, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is "becoming increasingly concerned about these practices, which devalue taxpayer investments in health IT and are fundamentally incompatible with efforts to transform the nation’s health system."

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Karen DeSalvo, MD, has stepped into the role of national coordinator for healthcare information technology at a time when American healthcare is in a state of unprecedented change. Read More »

As it works to broaden health information exchange capabilities across the care continuum, the Office of the National Coordinator has drawn up a certification guidance aimed at technology developers serving specialized providers who are ineligible for Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payments. Read More »

Letter to Capitol Hill Says Independent Payment Advisory Board would “severely limit Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care” Read More »

Patients in Pennsylvania — as they already can in New Jersey and Delaware — could get results directly from a laboratory instead of waiting for a delivery from a doctor, under a proposal to change federal law announced Monday by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Read More »

Three times a year, 29 doctors gather around a table in a hotel meeting room. Their job is an unusual one: divvying up billions of Medicare dollars.

The group, convened by the American Medical Association, has no official government standing. Members are mostly selected by medical-specialty trade groups. Anyone who attends its meetings must sign a confidentiality agreement. Read More »