Government & Policy

"With respect to some business practices: It's time to lead, follow or get out of the way," CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt said at the 2016 Health Datapalooza in Washington, D.

Many physicians have waited with bated breath for the end of meaningful use, looking forward to a new era of less burdensome compliance requirements and more realistic reporting guidelines. This may not be what they had in mind.

The workgroup’s research found productivity hiccups in providers’ coding, and clinical documentation alongside positive impacts for payers in the areas of claims validation and data analytics. But isn’t it too early to tell whether the transition really went well? 

For Vice President Joe Biden, his National Cancer Moonshot Initiative is more than just a government program – it's personal.

The proposal would keep hospitals and clinics private, allow physicians to bill under a fee-for-service model, and be funded by rolling combining current sources of government health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes. 

Two new funding initiatives, dubbed High Impact Pilots Standards Exploration Award, will focus on improving care delivery and data sharing.  

Geisinger, University of Utah Health and other leading health systems to test winning designs in the contest called A Bill You Can Understand, sponsored by AARP.

The Health and Human Services chief said that HHS is working to eliminate data blocking, enable interoperability, and protect patient data as it moves around the healthcare system. 

The Office for Civil Rights said that many HIPAA-covered entities do not believe business associates will notify them in the event of a data breach but since providers are on the hook anyway they must be ready should that happen. 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Andy Slavitt asks hospital executives for 'meaningful engagement' with the proposed new MACRA policy, and hints they should follow Washington rule-making closely in the near future.