Medicare

1 in 2 Physicians Demoralized, Dissatisfied

By Staff for HealthLeaders Media News Medical doctors are largely overwhelmed by their work and disengaged from key healthcare reform measures such as value-based payments, accountable care organizations, and electronic health records, survey data shows. Half of physicians are disengaged, burned out, and demoralized and plan to either retire, cut back on work hours, or seek…

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What to Know About Medicare’s Big Bundled-Payment Expansion

By Elizabeth Whitman for Modern Healthcare A new mandatory program the CMS proposed Monday would make hospitals in 98 markets financially accountable for the cost and quality of all care associated with bypass surgery and heart attacks. “We think it’s important to keep pushing forward on delivery system reform,” Dr. Patrick Conway, acting principal deputy…

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Feds Charge 3 People in Record $1 Billion Medicare Fraud Scheme

By Sarah N. Lynch for MSN Money The U.S. Department of Justice unveiled its largest-ever criminal healthcare fraud case against individuals on Friday, charging the owner of Miami-based assisted living facilities and two others in a massive $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme. Prosecutors alleged that Philip Esformes, 47, “masterminded and executed a sophisticated health care…

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EHR-Enabled Fraud Remains a Concern

By Cheryl Branche for Medical Economics Imagine, in an effort to bill a higher fee, a colleague cuts and pastes a complete history and physical examination you wrote in the electronic health record (EHR) of your patient, but forgets to make adjustments based on his/her findings. This is happening with EHRs in hospitals and practices nationwide. While…

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CMS Eases Meaningful Use Requirements in Proposed Rule

Article by Mary Butler. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA website on July 12, 2016 and is republished here with permission. A new proposed rule would reduce the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) “meaningful use” EHR Incentive Program reporting period for clinicians, hospitals, and critical access hospitals. The new reporting period would…

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Unfinished Business

By Susan Chapman for For The Record Findings from The Joint Commission show many surveyed hospitals house incomplete medical records. When so many aspects of health care revolve around quality documentation, it would be good to know that providers are accomplished medical record custodians. Depending on your perspective, the news on that front isn’t half…

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Respiratory Therapist Convicted in HIPAA Criminal Case

Prosecutors Alleged Patient Information Used to Seek Drugs By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee for Healthcare Info Security In a rare criminal case involving a HIPAA violation, a federal jury in Ohio has convicted a former respiratory therapist of wrongly obtaining individually identifiable health information. Prosecutors claimed the therapist was using the information for seeking, obtaining or…

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Analyzing Eight Months of ICD-10

Article by Mary Butler. This article was originally published on the Journal of AHIMA website on June, 2016 and is republished here with permission. Teachers know there are two kinds of students. Student A studies and does their assigned reading throughout the whole semester, earning extra credit where they can. When the final exam rolls up, they’re…

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