Meaningful Use

Electronic Medical Records Probed for Over-billing

Critics question credibility of federal panel charged with investigating By Fred Schulte for The Center for Public Integrity The Obama administration is forging ahead with a multi-billion dollar plan to shift from paper to electronic medical records, despite continuing concerns the program may be prompting some doctors and hospitals to improperly bill higher fees to…

Read MoreElectronic Medical Records Probed for Over-billing

10 Best Children’s Hospitals

By Karen Cicero from Parents Magazine These pediatric centers — leaders in Parents’ exclusive evaluation — routinely heal sick children whom local hospitals could no longer help. Find out where to go if the unfathomable ever happens to your family. The Survey At children’s hospitals nationwide, a growing number of very sick children are finding…

Read More10 Best Children’s Hospitals

Who Will Be The Steve Jobs Of Healthcare?

By Joon Yun for Forbes Hospital, heal thyself. Almost everyone feels ill when thinking about the rising cost of healthcare in this country; it already stands at a gut-churning $2.7 trillion per year. Similarly, most folks find hospitals uncomfortable, even frightening. Both high costs and low satisfaction share a root cause: Poorly designed medical infrastructure.…

Read MoreWho Will Be The Steve Jobs Of Healthcare?

Bargain Over Fiscal Cliff Brings Changes To Health Care

by Julie Rovner for NPR The bill that prevented the nation from plunging over the fiscal cliff did more than just stop income tax increases and delay across-the-board spending cuts. It also included several provisions that tweaked Medicare and brought bigger changes to other health care programs. The health care change that got the most…

Read MoreBargain Over Fiscal Cliff Brings Changes To Health Care

Leapfrog’s New Safety Report Card Alarms Hospitals

by Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media Some 25 hospitals, including 520-bed Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, received a failing grade of F, while another 121 hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, got a barely passing D in the release today of the controversial Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Score, an effort to inform patients…

Read MoreLeapfrog’s New Safety Report Card Alarms Hospitals

Safeguarding Patient Data in EHRs

From SmartData Collective A recent blog by the HIPAA, HITECH & HIT legal blog of Fox Rothschild revealed a survey administered by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS). The EHR (electronic health record) technology questionnaire is part of a study on fraud and abuse safeguards…

Read MoreSafeguarding Patient Data in EHRs

Medicare Is Faulted on Shift to Electronic Records

By REED ABELSON for The New York Times The conversion to electronic medical records — a critical piece of the Obama administration’s plan for health care reform — is “vulnerable” to fraud and abuse because of the failure of Medicare officials to develop appropriate safeguards, according to a sharply critical report to be issued Thursday…

Read MoreMedicare Is Faulted on Shift to Electronic Records

Conflict of interest alleged in UnitedHealth Group

By Alexander Bolton for The Hill The Obama administration is relying heavily on outside contractors to implement a core component of healthcare reform as it races to set up a federal health insurance marketplace before 2014. The fast-approaching deadline gives the administration little time to scrutinize private-sector partners for conflicts of interest. The purchase of…

Read MoreConflict of interest alleged in UnitedHealth Group