Laura Joszt, MA

Hospice care for Medicare patients resulted in lower hospitalization rates and lower healthcare expenditures during the last year of life, according to a study published the November 12 issue of JAMA.

Traditional pay-for-performance programs tend to result in significant waste for payers, but the industry could benefit from a slightly modified model, which focus efforts on patients who are at higher risk for poor outcomes.

Open enrollment doesn't begin until Saturday, but the Obama administration is already predicting lower enrollment numbers for the second year of the health insurance exchanges, according to a memo from HHS.

As the healthcare industry transitions to new initiatives such as accountable care organizations and pay-for-performance, clinical documentation improvement is necessary, according to a report from the American Health Information Management Association.

In less than 2 months the health insurance Marketplaces will need to be financially self-sustaining, which will occur through a variety of approaches, as federal establishment funds will run out on January 1, 2015.

Based on data from 17 states and the District of Columbia, premium increases for 2015 are expected to be low, according to a report from The Urban Institute.

On the heels of a major Republican victory in the midterm elections, the Supreme Court has decided to review the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

Despite numerous delays and the difficulty of preparing for ICD-10, there are reasons to be optimistic for the transition, according to the results of a new survey.

Recently released numbers from the CMS Meaningful Use program were lower than expected, which further highlights the changes that need to be made in meeting federal guidelines for electronic health record requirements, according to officials 4 healthcare organizations.

Healthcare reform initiatives may be on shaky ground after Republicans won important seats this midterm election, but health reform advocates are claiming victory in California after defeating an insurance rate initiative.

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.