State Medicaid agencies are responsible for health services that touch the lives of every American, making the potential benefits of modern technology tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), enormous. However, despite the promise of increased effectiveness with the same or fewer resources, modernization, and digital transformation do not come easily - or naturally - to many of these agencies. Real and perceived fears in transitioning away from legacy,
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Hospital Leaders: Workforce Shortages Persist Amid Stabilization
What You Should Know:
- Hospitals and health systems are seeing some signs of stabilization and margin improvement, but challenges around workforce, expenses and patient access persist according to Kaufman Hall’s 2023 State of Healthcare Performance Improvement report.
- Kaufman Hall experts expect that it will be a slow climb for hospitals to return to the 3-4% operating margins that help ensure long-term sustainability. While staffing and capacity issues have clear
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UnitedHealthcare, RUSH Health Form Medicare Advantage Relationship
What You Should Know:
- UnitedHealthcare and RUSH Health announced a new relationship that will give UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan members network access to all RUSH Health locations in Illinois for the first time, effective immediately.
- The multi-year agreement, effective Oct. 1, provides UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan members with enhanced access to quality care and provides a new option as they choose which health plan best meets their healthcare needs
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Healthcare Organizations Must Focus On Business Value & Not Chase The Technology Pendulum
If you’ve been in the healthcare or technology spaces for any reasonable length of time, you’ve witnessed the tremendous growth spurred by investment as healthcare organizations pursue digital transformation. According to RockHealth, funding for U.S.-based digital health startups topped $29 billion in 2021 – adding to the $23 billion invested in 2019 and 2020 – and the number of new solutions in the market has never been higher.
Such strong investment drives technology adoption but also
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NCQA Wins $18M CMS Office of Minority Health Contract
What You Should Know:
- NCQA announced that it has been awarded a $18M, maximum 5-year contract from the CMS Office of Minority Health to advance health equity and reduce health disparities.
The project, called the Health Equity Accelerator builds on NCQA’s strong foundation of work at the intersection of health equity, health care quality and health outcomes research, as well as NCQA’s longstanding relationship with CMS OMH. NCQA previously supported CMS OMH as the prime contractor
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DHA Awards Amwell & Leidos $180M Contract to Power Military Hybrid Care Program
What You Should Know:
- Amwell and Leidos have been awarded a “next-generation contract” by the U.S. Defense Health Agency (DHA) to deliver a hybrid care platform to power the DHA’s Digital First transformation. This initial 22-month contract is valued at up to $180M; the project will start at five initial sites followed by a phased enterprise-wide rollout.
- While this task order is for the first phase of the program, the DHA Digital First program will support the entire
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4 Tips to Alleviate Burnout, Quell the Great Resignation in Nursing
When it comes to the Great Resignation, forget office workers – the real wave of resignation is coming from nurses. For many months post-COVID, nearly every headline, or so it seemed, was about office employees, their career paths, and the return to the office. What was underreported then – and continues to be – is that the Great Resignation came in full force for nurses.
The dynamics in healthcare are always complicated: Costs are going up, margins and reimbursements are shrinking, and
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Curana Health, Innovaccer Partner to Accelerate Value-Based Care for Seniors
What You Should Know:
Today Innovaccer Inc. announced that Curana Health, an innovative, fast-growing healthcare organization on a mission to improve the health, happiness, and dignity of senior living residents, is expanding its partnership with Innovaccer to meet strong market demand for its services, and to support the expansion of its value-based programs for high-risk populations nationwide.Last year Innovaccer announced that Curana Health had
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6 Digital Health Executives Share Key Takeaways from HLTH23
We reached out to six digital health executives for their key takeaways and reflections from attending the recent HLTH23 conference.
Patches Seely MBA, BSN, RN, Executive Vice President of Clinical Solutions, Carenet Health
"The energy of everyone I connected with was very encouraging. These are difficult times in healthcare, but I often heard people saying, "I'm not sure how exactly we will partner, but let's figure it out." The collaborative atmosphere spurred productive conversations
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DaVita, Google Cloud to Develop Customized Clinical OS to Transform Kidney Care
What You Should Know:
- DaVita Inc. and Google Cloud are teaming up to create a new clinical operating system that sets a foundation for streamlined kidney care for more than 200,000 DaVita patients.
- Built on Google Cloud infrastructure and utilizing AI and analytics tools co-developed by the two companies, DaVita's Center Without Walls (CWOW) is now live across the organization's 2,700+ dialysis centers nationwide.
- With the deployment, DaVita has moved from a
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