Happy Holidays 2015
Today we conclude our annual 12 Days of Christmas posts on HITECH Answers. From all of us at Answers Media Company, have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday.
Read MoreHealthcare Revenue Cycle and Finance
Do We Have to Define Population Health to Make It Useful?
By David Macfarlane – Maybe the initial challenge of population health is deciding exactly what that phrase means. Well before it became a catchphrase in health IT, population health was the province of academics who devised predictably academic definitions.
RCM Challenges Past, Present and Future
2015 was a critical year in the revenue cycle management space, presenting challenges for many providers looking to keep their bottom line above the red. We were there to cover it all in RCM Answers first year, thanks to ZirMed’s sponsorship and support of this site.
Serving the American Healthcare Revolution
By Matt Patterson MD – In my ritual of year-end reflection, I am struck by an unshakeable parallel between the general healthcare climate today, and the atmosphere surrounding the late stages of the American Revolution and the start of our fledgling nation.
Foundations Unite to Support Access to Clinical Notes for 50 Million Patients Nationwide
Cambia Health Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Peterson Center on Healthcare, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation jointly announced $10 million in new funding to spread access to clinical notes to 50 million patients nationwide.
CMS Updates its Quality Strategy to Build a Better, Smarter, and Healthier Health Care Delivery System
By Patrick Conway MD – At the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), we are working with public and private partners to build a health care delivery system that delivers improved care, spends health care dollars more wisely, and makes communities healthier.
Discharge Planning Proposed Rule Focuses on Patient Preferences
CMS proposed to revise the discharge planning requirements that hospitals, including long-term care hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, critical access hospitals, and home health agencies, must meet in order to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Health Care Spending Estimates Reflect ACA Coverage Expansions and Higher Drug Costs
By Sara R. Collins & David Blumenthal MD – New estimates released this week by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) show that annual growth in U.S. health care spending increased to 5.3 percent in 2014, up from 2.9 percent in 2013, after five consecutive years of historically low growth.
Traditional Healthcare BPO Sourcing Will be Tested as Never Before
By Rohan Kulkarni – Growth in healthcare spending in the United States is slowing down, however it’s still growing and continues to outpace gross domestic product (GDP) spending by several points. Revolutionary trends are emerging for all healthcare service providers (i.e., payers, providers and pharmaceuticals), that will guarantee radical shifts in how these providers serve their patients, as well as how business process outsourcing (BPO)vendors serve their healthcare clients.