Medicare

Leapfrog Group Releases 2017 Hospital Grades

By Staff for HealthLeaders Media The five states with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals this spring are Maine, Hawaii, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Idaho. The Leapfrog Group  released its latest “safety grades” Wednesday for the 2,639 hospitals participating in the group’s annual survey. Of that group, 31% (823) earned an “A” and 27% (706) earned a…

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Trump’s Budget: 5 Healthcare Winners and 8 Losers

By Jessica Davis for Healthcare IT News A look at the agencies hit hardest and those that stand to benefit, funding-wise, in Trump’s budget proposal. Under the President’s budget proposal released Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services would receive a 17.9 percent decrease in funding. It’s one of the largest departments in the…

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Mayo Clinic Questioned After CEO Says Private Insurance Should Be ‘Prioritized’

By Amy Forliti for Associated Press The Mayo Clinic is facing questions from the state of Minnesota after its CEO told employees that if patient conditions are equal, its hospitals should prioritize privately insured patients over those under government-subsidized programs such as Medicaid. John Noseworthy’s comments were made late last year in a videotaped speech…

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The Battle Begins as House Republicans Release ACA Repeal Bill

By Harris Meyer for Modern Healthcare Under pressure from conservatives and the business community, House Republicans have released a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act that ditches their previous proposal to tax high-value employer health plans. The 123-page bill, dubbed the American Health Care Act, was released Monday night. It would replace…

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Washington Debrief: New Administration Update & Hill Activity

By Leslie Kriegstein, Vice President of Congressional Affairs, CHIME for Healthcare Informatics Dr. Price’s Nomination to be Secretary of HHS Advances Key Takeaway: President Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Dr. Tom Price (R-GA), is set to be considered by the full Senate to become the nation’s chief healthcare…

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Trump’s Executive Order on the ACA: 5 Things to Know

By Emily Rappleye for Becker’s Hospital Review January 23, 2017 President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday evening aimed at immediately lessening the economic burden of the ACA as Republican lawmakers work on a repeal and replacement plan. Here are five things to know about the scope of the executive order. 1. The order offers…

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Specialty Societies Say EHR Vendors Are Blocking Their Registry Work

By Darius Tahir for POLITICO Electronic health record companies are obstructing efforts by specialty societies to gather data that are crucial to the Obama administration’s goal of improving health care quality, leaders of the physician groups tell POLITICO. The data are collected in registries, which are organized to track patients and their conditions and procedures…

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What Health Systems Need to Know Now About Secure Texting

By Arun Mirchandani for For The Record There has been a lot of talk recently about secure texting for medication and other types of medical orders. In the past several months, The Joint Commission announced that it was lifting—and then decided to delay lifting—its ban on texting orders while it works with the Centers for Medicare…

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