On Monday, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) sent a letter to a Senate Finance Committee workgroup urging them to rethink the reimbursement of telehealth services, as well as how it can serve as an effective alternative for improved healthcare delivery.
In the letter CHIME stated, "inconsistencies in the definition and reimbursement policies of telehealth services in federal and state programs are hurdles to widespread adoption. While Medicaid encourages
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Crowdfunding Effort Targets Patients Seeking Genome Sequencing
Rare Genomics Institute (RG) is launching a 30-day crowdfunding bootcamp to help rare disease patients raise funds for high-end exome sequencing to pinpoint the cause of their disease and map possible treatments. The training session is an integral part of Amplify Hope, a new RG program that navigates patients and their families through the emerging fundraising opportunities. The project, funded by the Templeton Foundation, is free for the participants.
By providing an expert network and
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CVS Health Opens Digital Health Innovation Lab in Boston
CVS Health today announced the official opening of its Digital Innovation Lab in Boston, a facility that is focused on developing cutting-edge digital services and personalized capabilities that offer an accessible and integrated personal pharmacy and health experience. The Lab will serve as a vital hub for the rapidly growing digital team at CVS Health, which will remain headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I.
"At CVS Health, everything we do is to help people on their path to better health, and
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Hill-Rom to Acquire Welch Allyn for $2.05B
Hill-Rom, a provider of hospital equipment, medical devices and surgical products, will acquire Welch Allyn for approximately $2.05 billion in cash and stock. Under the terms of the agreement, Welch Allyn shareholders will receive $1.625 billion in cash and approximately 8.1 million newly-issued shares of Hill-Rom common stock. After the acquisition is closed, which is slated before the end of September 2015, Welch Allyn shareholders will own approximately 13 percent of the combined
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Tute Genomics Raises $3.9M to Enable Genome-guided Medicine
Tute Genomics, a cloud-based platform that can rapidly analyze and annotate personal genomes has raised over $3.9 million in Series A funding from a strategic group of investors, including internationally recognized Intermountain Healthcare, an integrated network of 22 hospitals and 185 physician clinics. Other major investors include Healthbox, a platform for innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare, and China-based Tencent, one of the largest Internet companies in the world.
Tute
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Hospital To Pilot First-Ever Patient Tablet App for Enhanced Recovery After Surgery
Montreal-based McGill University Health Centre’s (MUHC) Steinberg-Bernstein Centre for Minimally Invasive Surgery has partnered with SeamlessMD, a company which provides a cloud-based patient engagement solution for surgery, to perform the first-ever study of a patient tablet app for Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS). Funded by the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), the study will determine whether a patient tablet app can improve patient adherence to ERAS
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Wellstar Breaks Off Merger Negotiations with Emory
Wellstar Health System announced it has ended merger negotiations with Emory Healthcare, Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. The proposed merger failed to fit into Wellstar’s “new strategic direction," according to Gary Miller, chairman of the system's board of trustees.
"WellStar has declined to enter the next stage of discussions with Emory University,” Miller said. “We respect Emory University as a leading, international academic medical center. WellStar will accelerate multiple horizontal
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Walgreens Plans to Expand Telehealth Platform to 25 States
Walgreens, in collaboration with telehealth platform provider MDLIVE, today announced an expansion of its telehealth platform to users in Colorado, Illinois and Washington. Additionally, the company announced users can now access the platform via the Walgreens website on desktop and tablet devices, in states where the service is currently offered.
Walgreens and MDLIVE first launched the platform last December through the Walgreens mobile application in California and Michigan. The
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55% of Millennials Would Trust A Health App Over Health Professionals
Fifty-five percent of millennials who live with diabetes stated they would trust a health app over a health professional for advice. The same number stated they are connecting with their doctors more frequently because of health apps, according to Telcare's first National Diabetes Awareness Index. The mobile diabetes management provider developed the Index to measure consumer awareness about diabetes and attitudes towards the use of technology in healthcare.
The index findings reflect a
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New Bill Proposes 2 Year ICD-10 Grace Period
A new bill introduced into the US House of Representatives introduced by Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL-6) on June 4 proposes a two-year “grace period” for accepting codes submitted in ICD-10-CM/PCS. The bill, H.R. 2652, Protecting Patients and Physicians Against Coding Act of 2015, would establish a two-year ICD-10 grace period during which physicians and other health care providers submitting claims and other documents using ICD–10 are not penalized for errors, mistakes, and malfunctions relating to
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