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Beyond the online marketplaces and networks of health systems seeking to meet the influx of newly insured, are the individuals who will be providing patient care. By 2020, the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that there will be a 90,000 shortage in physicians. To fill that provider gap, many are looking to the physician assistant (PA) workforce.

Most Americans don't want the government to decide if medical treatments are economical before letting patients use them, a new survey suggests.

In five markets around the country, accountable care organizations were providing care to more than half the Medicare patients in the traditional fee-for-service program, a new study found. In addition, ACOs were more likely to be found in markets with greater consolidation by hospitals and doctors.

In the past few years, efforts to lower costs and improve care have proliferated.

Ignore the inevitable startup glitches. The new health-insurance exchanges will work just fine -- in the sense that all government health-care programs work: Many people will ultimately become dependent on them for coverage. That won't mean the exchanges have fulfilled their promise, however.

Practitioners, payers, and patients alike increasingly recognize the need for the PCMH in the United States, especially as reform efforts seek to control costs and improve quality of care delivery.

There's a Medicare prescription-drug coverage abyss that is playfully referred to as the "doughnut hole," though there is nothing sweet or amusing about it.

Many healthcare providers and payers are moving forward with patient-centered medical homes to improve primary care and care coordination and reduce costs, despite mixed research evidence of the cost-effectiveness of this major delivery system reform.

As the government shutdown drags on, patients and providers are feeling the strain.

Federal and state officials moved Wednesday to strengthen the computer underpinnings of the new online health exchanges, which proved inadequate to handle a flood of consumer inquiries that began as soon as the system opened on Tuesday and continued into the next day.

From the Physician Quality Reporting System's aim to boost quality measures reporting to the potential for accountable care organizations to transform care delivery, this brief sheds light on these and other key ACA provisions impacting cancer care.

ONC watchers in the healthcare industry and media alike now have their answer to what exactly outgoing national coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, will do now.

Having access to a computer and the Internet may seem like a basic commodity for most Americans, but for the economically challenged, this is not always the case.

Hospitals will be paid nearly the same rates by health plans sold through new state insurance exchanges as by plans sold to employers outside them, say analysts and hospital system executives.

The merger wave sweeping up Massachusetts hospitals and doctors threatens to increase health care prices and widen the payment gap between providers, according to warnings from industry leaders, health insurers, and regulators at a hearing Wednesday.

A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data.

The pharmaceutical lobby has filed a lawsuit seeking to block implementation of a federal rule that allows healthcare providers that participate in the 340B drug discount program to buy orphan drugs at reduced prices if the drugs are used to treat non-orphan conditions or diseases.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and other New Hampshire hospitals may see an increase of patients and changes in healthcare approach as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act goes into effect in the coming months.

If for some reason you're not already drowning in the rough waters of U.S. health policy - what with the Affordable Care Act's health exchanges launching today and Congress and President Obama still duking it out over the four-year-old law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court - well, you're in luck.

More than a quarter of insurers are new to the private insurance market. So why would some of the nation's largest companies decide not to compete for these new customers?

Yesterday, the official website enrolling masses of uninsured Americans into health plans logged 1 million visits.

As the nation faced Day 1 of the government shutdown, federal lawmakers made no progress on funding government operations in the new fiscal year, and healthcare leaders pondered the effects of the budget impasse on patients, providers, researchers and public health programs.

Heavy volume contributed to technical problems and delays that plagued the rollout Tuesday of the online insurance markets at the heart of President Obama's health care law, according to state and federal governments, with officials watching closely for clues to how well the system will work and how many people will take advantage of it.

The country is abuzz with news of the state-based exchanges opening today. For the millions of uninsured, it means they can finally obtain affordable coverage. Yet, a lack of outreach and education about what the exchanges entail has created a missing link between consumers and their ability to make effective decisions.

Whatever HHS officials envisioned for the first day of open enrollment on the health insurance exchanges, they surely didn't expect to face it with more than half of the department's employees furloughed.

As online applications, the health insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act will leave something to be desired in at least some states when they start enrolling consumers on Oct. 1.

Medicare officials announced Thursday that they will delay enforcement of controversial new rules that define when hospital patients should receive observation care, rather than being admitted, a distinction that makes beneficiaries ineligible for follow-up nursing home coverage.

Tomorrow marks the official start date of open enrollment in the healthcare insurance exchange marketplace. For the first time in history, millions nationwide will have the opportunity to purchase health insurance as a benefit of the Affordable Care Act.

Hospitals and medical groups are the organizations that most commonly see uninsured patients and have a powerful incentive to find a payment source.

Less than a week before the health insurance marketplaces established by the 2010 healthcare law begin accepting customers, a New York Times/CBS News poll has found that there is some support among uninsured Americans for President Obama and his law, but also a wariness and a lack of understanding about what the law will mean for them.