Laura Joszt, MA

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will be awarding $38 million to 20 organizations in 3 health information technology grant programs working to further nationwide efforts to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people.

All-cause mortality and hospitalization rates and inpatient expenditures among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries decreased from 1999 to 2013.

Two inexpensive generic drugs have been shown to reduce breast cancer deaths in postmenopausal women, according to studies published in The Lancet.

Although hospital readmissions can be difficult to predict, there is a link between the number of discharge medications prescribed to a patient and the risk of 30-day readmission.

Consolidation among the biggest health insurers in the US continues as Anthem announces it will purchase Cigna for $54 billion after a month of rocky negotiations.

By 2050 more than 28 million additional baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's disease and the cost of caring for them will account for nearly one-fourth of Medicare spending by 2040, according to research presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.

In the first clinical study to demonstrate the importance of precision medicine in lymphomas, researchers determined that patients with a specific molecular subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma responded better to ibrutinib than patients with a different molecular subtype.

A gene known to cause cancer may also play a role in determining obesity, according to researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center.

Hackers have accessed the personal information of 4.5 million people after the UCLA Health System became the victim of a cyberattack on May 5, 2015.

Approximately 9 million Medicare beneficiaries are considered "complex care" and they often incur high out-of-pocket costs. As lifespans lengthen, it becomes important for Medicare to adapt to serve these complex care beneficiaries.

Viruses, not bacteria, are the most commonly detected pathogen in US adults hospitalized with pneumonia; however, neither viruses nor bacteria were detected in the majority of these patients despite current diagnostic tests.

Former CMS administrator, Marilyn B. Tavenner, will step into the role of president and chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans.

In a move that will create the largest healthcare system in New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Barnabas Health have signed a merger agreement that will create RWJ Barnabas Health. The merger is expected to be complete in 2016, but the agreement is subject to review by the New Jersey Attorney General.

A new issue brief by America's Health Insurance Plans explores the recent trends in the specialty drug market and recommends policy solutions to promote high-value, high-quality care.

The concept of value may be, and is, interpreted differently among healthcare stakeholders, and not only do cancer patients define value differently from policy makers, but also from other patients.

President Barack Obama has nominated Andy Slavitt to become the new administrator of CMS.

By an overwhelming majority, the House of Representatives approved the 21st Century Cures Act, which stands advance big data and precision medicine and strengthen the National Institutes of Health and FDA.

There is an important mismatch existing between the types of treatments proposed by patients and clinicians and those being researched.

As CMS continues to transform the Medicare program to a quality- and outcomes-based system, the agency is proposing to support patient- and family-centered care for Medicare beneficiaries by enabling them to discuss advance care planning with their providers.

Despite efforts by states to introduce legislation to make healthcare pricing information more accessible for consumers, most states still receive an F grade, according to the third annual Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws.

While a better understanding has led to a drop in the colorectal cancer death rate by half, the progress made in the last few decades has not been equal across the United States, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Approximately 70% of all Medicaid beneficiaries receive their healthcare services through managed care, and state Medicaid programs are required to report encounter data to a national database, but 8 states did not during fiscal year 2011, according to a new government report.

CMS has released additional guidance allowing for flexibility in claims auditing and quality reporting during the transition to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision and is working with the American Medical Association to educate providers.

Although the CDC expects death rates for most cancers to decrease by 2020, melanoma is the exception and new cases are expected to cost $1.6 billion in 2030.

Cardiovascular disease may be the leading cause of death in the United States, but half of those deaths can be prevented, according to researchers from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.

The fact that a small percentage of the population accounts for roughly half of healthcare spending in the United States is not new information. Now a new white paper from the Health Care Transformation Task Force has taken a look at what healthcare systems can do to identify these individuals in order to better manage their care and lower spending.

Despite concerns that Medicare Advantage payment reductions included in the Affordable Care Act would lead to a decline in enrollment, the number and share of beneficiaries enrolling in Medicare Advantage has only continue to climb since the health reform law was enacted.

A week after JAMA released a report that found more than two-thirds of Americans age 25 years and older are overweight or obese, the American Academy of Pediatrics presented updated guidelines on preventing childhood obesity and recommendations for parents to help their children maintain a healthy weight.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government in King v. Burwell, President Barack Obama triumphantly claimed that "Affordable Care Act is here to stay." However, the truth is that GOP presidential hopefuls have no intention of letting the law stand.

Two new changes to CMS' ACO Investment Model will help practices in rural areas gain more access to the benefits of accountable care organizations.