Latest Morning Briefing Stories
California Nurses Union Braces For Contract Battle
The powerful California Nurses Association is threatening to strike as it begins negotiations with Kaiser Permanente on a new four-year contract.
Medicare Testing Payment Options That Could End Observation Care Penalties
The pilot projects underway at hospitals eliminate the requirement that seniors must be admitted for three days before they qualify for nursing home coverage.
Docs Slam Recertification Rules They Call A Waste Of Time
Some say the requirements will push older doctors to retire early, worsening the physician shortage.
Tech-Savvy Subjects Test Exchange Website, Advise Changes
The University of Pennsylvania recruited young people to shop for coverage on healthcare.gov to learn what gave them trouble navigating the site.
Nurse Practitioners Gain Flexibility With New State Law
The law, effective July 15, is viewed as an innovative compromise in Kentucky, but some people involved in national scope-of-practice debates are skeptical.
Veterans’ Needs ‘Should Drive Where They Get Their Care’
As Congress and the VA look to ease long wait times by sending more patients to outside providers, Dr. Ken Kizer, a former VA undersecretary for health, discusses how such an effort could play out.
Will Health Reform Bring New Role, Respect To Primary Care Physicians?
By paying primary care doctors to cut specialist and hospital revenue, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is helping to alter the medical spoils system.
Study: Hospitals Using Electronic Medical Records Not Bilking Medicare
In 2012, Medicare was rocked by allegations hospitals were systematically overcharging the government program by misusing electronic medical records. A study published Tuesday disputes that.
Some Plans Skew Drug Benefits To Drive Away Patients, Advocates Warn
Groups file complaint with federal officials saying four Florida insurers discriminated against people with HIV in setting up pricing structure for drugs, and another analysis finds that many silver plans place medications for costly diseases in highest formulary tier.
How Illinois Has Spent $56M From Health Law’s Prevention Fund
The health law seeks to reduce health care costs by spending more money on prevention and wellness efforts.
The Latest In Medical Convenience: ER Appointments
Hospitals around the country are allowing patients to wait at home rather than endure hours in crowded emergency rooms. Warning: It’s not for life-threatening cases, and you could be bumped for someone sicker.
Who Shopped The SHOP Exchanges? Very Few Small Businesses
This story is part of a partnership that includes WNYC, NPR and Kaiser Health News. It can be republished for free. (details) Monteith Illingworth and Chris Abbate both have small public relations firms in Manhattan. Both offer their employees health coverage through Oxford Health, a division of insurance giant United Healthcare. Both faced double-digit premium […]
Retooling Hospitals, One Data Point At A Time
The University of Utah improved quality and reduced costs by tracking each patient’s care.
Getting Rural Patients Psychiatric Help Fast
Patients in rural hospitals often have to wait days to see a psychiatrist. South Carolina is a leader in turning that around.
Health Care System Needs To Prepare For Global Warming
Dr. Al Sommer, the former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who helped produce a new report on climate change, says changes expected this century could lead to many deaths and a strain on hospitals.
Shortage Of Saline Solution Has Hospitals On Edge
Manufacturers of the essential fluid say they won’t be able to catch up with demand until next year.
Drug Discount Program Has Drugmakers Crying Foul
Hospitals and drug makers are waging a pitched battle over the program — known as 340B — that requires drug manufacturers to give steep discounts to hospitals that treat a large percentage of poor patients.
More Than 750 Hospitals Face Medicare Crackdown On Patient Injuries
The 1 percent cut in payments is the latest effort by the federal government to improve hospital care.
Patient Injuries: Hospitals Most Likely To Be Penalized By Medicare
Out of all 761 hospitals that are in line to be penalized for high rates of infections and complications this fall, 175 of them are most likely to be penalized because their preliminary scores are nine or above on a scale of 1 to 10.
Q&A: Can Claims Data Crack the Health Care Cost Riddle?
More states are creating all-payer claims databases. Find out how they work.
