Repealing Sustainable Growth Rate Would Cost $138 Billion Over 10 Years
March 4th 2014Repealing the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, a mechanism Congress enacted in 1997 to limit Medicare costs, is going to leave taxpayers with a bill of $60 billion from 2014 through 2019, and a total of $138 billion through 2024.
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Highmark Lowers Hospital-Infusion Chemotherapy Rates
February 27th 2014Hospitals and medical centers that provide chemotherapy infusion services to their cancer patients on an outpatient basis generally get paid more than oncologists and hematologists who provide the same services in a private office.
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Physician Practices, Health Care Organizations See Own Staff as Source of Security Breaches
February 21st 2014Results from the final report of the 2013 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Security Survey suggest that physician practices and health care organizations such as hospitals view their own staff members as the greatest source of patient information and confidentiality security breaches.
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CMS Bows to Pressure-Conducts End-to-End Testing of ICD-10
February 20th 2014The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is caving to pressure from the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) to conduct far more extensive end-to-end testing to assure proper adjudication and payment of claims as the October 1 deadline for the ICD-10 transition looms
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Providing Earlier Palliative Care Improves Quality of Life, Patient Satisfaction
February 19th 2014Traditionally, palliative care for patients with cancer is geared towards end-of-life measures, but a new study from the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto suggests patients who receive palliative care earlier in their cancer therapy report improved quality of life and greater satisfaction.
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Visualizing Cancer Cells With the Help of High-tech Eyewear
February 17th 2014High-tech eyewear could soon help surgeons remove tumors from patients with breast cancer or melanoma by allowing them to see the margins of tumors more accurately when a dye is used to fluoresce a tumor's borders.
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Reducing the Costs of Cancer Might Involve 'Physician Heal Thyself'
February 14th 2014To reduce the costs of cancer, community oncologists increase the use of evidence-based treatments, standardize care with pathways, transition away from fee-for-service, and change communication with patients about reasonable end-of-life care.
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Ease of Enrollment, Efficiency Key Factors in Oncologists' Perception of Patient Assistance Programs
February 12th 2014Biopharmaceutical companies that administer patient assistance programs (PAPs) well in terms of service and support parameters seem to benefit from a halo effect among their oncologist customers, according to "PAP Utilization in Cancer Care," a Cogent Reports survey from Market Strategies International, a market research company.
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EHR Meaningful Use Deadline Pushed to March 31
February 11th 2014Providers who are eligible to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) electronic health record (EHR) incentive program have a one month reprieve to show that their practices are using the technology in a meaningfully useful way.
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Insurers in Government-Run Exchanges to Expand Provider Networks by 30% in 2015
February 5th 2014A news story from Bloomberg Business News suggests that insurers who are participating in government-run health insurance exchanges will be required to increase "essential community providers" in their local geographic area by 30% by 2015.
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