The 50-year old Medicare program is not aging well; and that’s not good news for seniors, according to a new report by National Center for Policy Analysis Senior Fellow Devon Herrick. When President Johnson signed the Medicare program into law on July 30, 1965, no one anticipated the program to grow at the rate it has. In 2014, the Medicare program spent over $613B to cover healthcare for 54 million beneficiaries. The law states that seniors do not qualify for Medicare until age
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Medicare Insurance| Regulatory, Policy, Patients Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Meaningful Use Stage 3 Proposed Rule: 5 Takeaways for Physicians
On March 20, 2015 the stars aligned to produce four simultaneous events that will never again coincide during the life of human civilization. The first three, the vernal equinox, a total solar eclipse and a new supermoon, were brought to us by the stars themselves, and the fourth one was thrown out there by the government. The regulations for Meaningful Use Stage 3 were finally published. Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) was presented to us back in 2009 as part of a stimulus
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EHR Usability for Ongoing Optimization
Dr. Stephen Beck, CMIO at Mercy Health (formerly Catholic Health Partners) discusses how his organization is approaching EHR usability to deliver improvements in efficiency, care quality and provider satisfaction.
Nearly every day I read a new article about physician dissatisfaction with EHRs. There seems to be many reasons for this attitude. Part of it is the need for better data collection tools to ensure ongoing optimization to keep pace with changing regulations. For example, an October
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Meaningful Use The Stats [Infographic Wednesdays]
Greenway Medical infographic provides a visual overview of Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program payments, registration, and attestations.
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Pre-Reform Impact of Self-Pay Patients on US Hospitals
Pre-reform, many hospitals experience significant uncompensated care costs from self-pay patients. The following infographic from Objective Health illustrates the variation in self-pay uncompensated care costs across US hospitals and regions.
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Seniors are Losing Billions of Dollars Buried in Unused Benefits from Medicare and Other Agencies
Guest post by Peggy Gavan
According to a report released by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a), millions of low-income older adults are missing out on over $20 billion in free and low-cost support that could help pay for health care, prescriptions, food, and utilities. The main reason why seniors are not taking advantage of these resources? They simply don’t know the money is there for them.
In response to this disconnect, the
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Infographic:The ACO Prescription Cure or Disease?
infographic explores whether ACOs are beneficial to the patient and the tax payer in the long run.
2011 has been a busy year for ACOs dominating the industry with the announcements of the ACO final rule, Medicare Shared Savings Program, NCQA Accountable Care Organization Accrediation program, and the 32 health systems selected for the CMS ACO Pioneer Program. Medicare can potentially save as much as $960 million dollars over three years through Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). With
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Interactive: A Status Report on Health Information Technology in the States
This map above provides a status report on where states stand in distributing Medicaid incentive payments for adoption of health information technology based on the latest data that was provided by CMS October 2011.
The 2009 economic stimulus law signed by President Barack Obama contained $27 billion in federal funds for eligible health providers who install electronic health records and follow government “meaningful use” guidelines to improve patient care. This portion of the law — known as
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Video: How to Navigate Medicare Reimbursement
The U.S. population is aging, which means more physicians will be treating Medicare and Medicaid patients in the years to come. The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services is mandating that physicians implement Electronic Medical Records to serve these patients more effectively and efficiently, and is offering reimbursements in the thousands for investment in technology. But the money is only available if doctors meet certain meaningful use requirements.
Intel Health recently spoke with Dr.
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Stage 2 of Meaningful Use Delayed to 2014
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services has moved the start date for Stage 2 of the electronic health records meaningful use program from 2013 to 2014. The department released the following statement regarding their decision:
"Input from the vendor community and the provider community makes clear that the current schedule for compliance with stage 2 meaningful use objectives in 2013 poses a nearly insurmountable timing challenge for those who attest to meaningful use in 2011. With
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