News

With the highest mortality rate in healthcare and costing hospitals an estimated $180 billion each year, intensive care units (ICUs) are established regulars in the health IT reform spotlight.

The most paramount obstacle to fighting fraud today is the "pay and chase" culture of rapid payment, rather than detection. Here are four new ways to change that and start eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse of healthcare funds.

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the substance of the Affordable Care Act, it's time to refocus attention toward the essentially bipartisan support for health IT. At the same time, it's worth reconsidering some closely-held beliefs about technology's role in care delivery.

The ACA surviving the Supreme Court means that now is the time for a Health IT orthodoxy 2.0, contends John Loonsk, MD, with a focus on improving data quality in the near-term to ultimately bolster decision support.

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the ACA, CIOs such as Ed Ricks are left to forge a path forward via health IT. Here's what Ricks is thinking.

The NQF Board of Directors has voted to stick to its decision to endorse a new all-cause hospital-wide readmissions measure developed by Yale University and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- a measure challenged by seven hospital systems.

Now that the uncertainty has cleared, healthcare organizations have even more incentive to metamorphose themselves into accountable care organizations aligned with the CMS Shared Savings Program.

The Supreme Court ruling -- finally -- has been handed down and the verdict is out: Chief Justice Roberts' hand pulled the ACA to shore. For the most part, industry insiders view the outcome as positive -- though many officials emphasize it's just the first step on a long road to reform.

Giving more people access to primary care and prevention stands to bolster population health moving forward. But the ACA is just a first step down that path.

Bill Bernstein, chairman of the healthcare division at law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips discusses why the Supreme Court's ruling is good news for the healthcare industry, and the challenges that remain.