News Room
March 5, 2019 | Health Affairs Blog
Consumerism has been defined in a variety of ways, both positive and negative, and its origins, at least in the United States, trace back nearly a century. The concept of consumerism in health care is more recent, with references to...
March 5, 2019 | New York Times
In a scathing decision released Tuesday, a federal judge in Northern California ruled that a unit of UnitedHealth Group, the giant health insurer, had created internal policies aimed at effectively discriminating against patients with...
March 5, 2019 | The Boston Globe
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at stemming a persistently high number of veteran suicides, urging expanded outreach by awarding grants to community programs.
The order creates a Cabinet-level task force...
March 4, 2019 | Modern Healthcare
LAW & REGULATION
Stark law changes to open up value-based model participation, Verma says.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the agency's update to the Stark law will include clarifying noncompliance for doctors.
March 3, 2019 | Associated Press
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest maker of health care products, wants to prevent people from getting sick — or at least stop diseases before they cause harm.
Its “World Without Disease” initiative and related projects aim to...
March 1, 2019 | Health Affairs Blog
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently finalized changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), its primary accountable care organization (ACO) program and most significant approach to constraining ballooning...
March 1, 2019 | Washington Post
Under a change taking effect Friday, D.C. residents who call 911 no longer will be guaranteed an ambulance ride to hospitals if responding medics and a nurse determine their ailments are minor, D.C. Fire and EMS Department officials said...
March 1, 2019
“We applaud this effort to expand the care team’s ability to coordinate appropriately and deliver high-value, accessible care – as well as steps to enhance trust between patient and clinicians. If behavioral health and substance use...
March 1, 2019
March 1, 2019
The Honorable Lamar Alexander
Chairman
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Patty Murray
Ranking Member
Committee on Health, Education,...
February 28, 2019 | Wall Street Journal
CVS Health Corp. has tapped a new chief information officer tasked with integrating its information technology and data with IT systems used by Aetna Inc., which the drugstore chain acquired last year in a $70 billion deal.
Roshan...
February 28, 2019 | Modern Healthcare
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association wants to resurrect congressional efforts to stabilize the Affordable Care Act's exchanges by boosting tax subsidies and cost-sharing payments.
The association, which represents more than 30 Blues...
February 27, 2019 | Family Medicine
The United States health care system is at a critical crossroad in its transformation. The foundational importance of primary care in our future health care system cannot be overstated. The undertaking of the collaborative process of...
February 27, 2019 | Health Affairs
In 2014, insurers paid an average of 13–14 percent less for in-network mental health services in their commercial and Medicare Advantage plans than fee-for-service Medicare paid for identical services—despite paying up to 12 percent more...
February 27, 2019 | Kaiser Health News
Dr. Huong Le spends an average of 45 minutes with each of her dental patients during their visits, so she gets to know them well, especially the older ones who come in more than twice a year.
She hears about their families, stories from...
February 27, 2019 | Health Affairs Blog
Digital health technologies hold great promise to solve some of the biggest problems in our healthcare system, including achieving higher quality, lower cost, and greater access to care. In the January 2019 issue of Health Affairs, we...
February 26, 2019 | Health IT Analytics
A higher number of primary care providers (PCPs) in a given region is associated with significant gains in life expectancy for resident populations, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Adding just 10 PCPs per...
February 26, 2019 | PCORI
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors today approved $2.8 million to fund two projects designed to speed the use of results of PCORI-funded studies into practice. The Board also approved a PCORnet...
February 26, 2019 | STAT
Medicare’s innovation chief, Adam Boehler, wants to “blow up” America’s system of paying for primary care by revamping one of its most fundamental building blocks: the old-fashioned office visit.
In coming weeks, Boehler’s office is...
February 25, 2019 | Modern Healthcare
For many years, the battle cry of healthcare cost warriors was, “Eliminate all those wasteful services.”
More recently that evolved to, “Pay providers based on value rather than volume.” But there were always those who insisted the real...
February 25, 2019 | Health Leaders Media
The primary care setting is the most appropriate venue for the screening and early treatment of depression, according to the lead author of an article published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Depression is one of the...
