Laura Joszt, MA

Large employer health plans will now be required to cover in-patient hospitalization services, according to a notice from the Treasury Department and HHS on Tuesday morning. The final regulation will be issued next year.

Using global budgets for healthcare instead of traditional fee-for-service improves quality of patient care and lowers costs, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy.

Patient satisfaction may be increasingly important in healthcare, but the industry hasn't made the appropriate changes yet, 2 employees from Prime Therapeutics said in back-to-back sessions at the 64th Annual Roy A. Bowers Pharmaceutical Conference.

At this time, the Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear an appeal of one of the cases challenging the legality of making subsidies under the Affordable Care Act available to consumers on the federally run health insurance exchanges.

The Affordable Care Act expanded healthcare coverage to many low-income Americans, but this same demographic has a low health literacy that makes it difficult for them to navigate program eligibility systems, according to a study from The Urban Institute.

In 2015, hospital readmissions will be a growing concern as the maximum penalty increases to 3% of Medicare payments. Researcher from Columbia Business School found that one extra day in the hospital can make all the difference to readmission and mortality rates.

Kindred Healthcare, Inc's chief operating officer and president, Benjamin A. Breier will take over as chief executive officer next year, just after the company is expected to close its acquisition of Gentiva Health Services.

Gaps in accountable measure sets exist among some of the most prevalent and costly conditions, according to a new report from the National Pharmaceutical Council and Discern Health.

Panelists discussed the price of pharmaceuticals and controlling the cost of care at the 64th Annual Roy A. Bowers Pharmaceutical Conference: A Measured Approach-Health Care Delivery and Transformation in a Metric Driven World, held by Rutgers University.

Despite using fewer medical services, privately insured Americans spent more money on these services in 2013, according to a report from the Health Care Cost Institute. The average enrollee in an employer health plan increased spending by 3.9% last year.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) seemed to be in dire straits as its leadership slowly left for other jobs. However, despite Dr DeSalvo's new position within HHS, she will maintain her leadership position in ONC, according to a new report.

If the current payment parity program is allowed to expire at the end of the year, doctors will be forced to limit the number of new Medicaid patients they can afford to take on, according to 4 medical associations.

Calls for greater healthcare pricing transparency have been gaining steam. A new study in JAMA found use of a private price transparency platform was associated with lower claims payments for 3 common medical services.

Electronic health records could actually increase the physicians' bureaucratic burdens, which already consume one-sixth of their time, according to a study by City University of New York professors.

Hospital consolidation for the purpose of improving patient care coordination and reducing cost of care is backfiring, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Effective immediately, Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, will be stepping down as national coordinator for health information technology to assist HHS in the fight against Ebola.

Patient-centered care has been getting a lot of attention as the healthcare industry focuses on the Triple Aim of delivering better health outcomes, improving patient experience, and reducing the cost of care. In that vein, the Louis W. Sullivan Institute for Healthcare Innovation recently released 6 guiding principles of patient-centered care.

Converting to for-profit status has a positive influence on a hospital's finances, but no effect on quality or mortality rates, found researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Ending the subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act would sharply increase costs for consumers, according to a study from the RAND Corporation. Furthermore, without the subsidies, more than 11 million Americans will lose their health insurance.

Congressional candidates may be still be talking about the Affordable Care Act, but a majority of the uninsured are still unaware of main components of the law, according to a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Industry experts discussed the big issues facing accountable care organizations (ACO) at the Brookings Institute's event, The State of Accountable Care: Evidence to Date and Next Steps, held Monday in Washington, DC.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology unveiled a draft for its 10-year plan for healthcare interoperability at a joint meeting on October 15.

A new initiative from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will explore how health information and data can be used to improve health in the community.

Despite continued Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act, sentiment is shifting from repeal to replace. Still, the fact that open enrollment on HealthCare.gov begins after the midterm elections does not seem like a coincidence to the GOP.

A majority of Americans covered by the Affordable Care Act are expecting to change plans for 2015, which may be a smart move, according to industry experts. People who simply re-enroll may not realize they are no longer among the lowest costing plans, which will affect how much their subsidies pay for.

Legal reforms that enact stronger protections against malpractice claims do not necessarily reduce defensive care, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The strict rules of the Meaningful Use (MU) program are preventing physicians from participating, according to the American Medical Association, which is calling for more flexibility and some relief from penalties.

Accountable Care Organizations participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program will have access to a new initiative that will support care coordination across the country, according to CMS. Up to $114 million in upfront investments will be made available.

Quality in Medicare Advantage plans is increasing, and CMS credits the improvement to its star rating system. A growing number of Medicare enrollees are in plans receiving at least 4 out of 5 stars, according to a new fact sheet.

The quality bonus payments tied to CMS' star ratings makes it critical that health plans receive a 4 or better, Jonathan Harding, MD, chief medical officer of the Senior Products Division at Tufts Health Plan, said at the America's Health Insurance Plan's National Conferences on Medicare and Medicaid, and Dual Eligibles Summit in Washington, DC, from September 28 to October 2.