http://www.smainformatics.com Delivering superior decision support tools and medical care data resources for healthcare business decision making by our clients. en-us Copyright 1999-2010, SMA Informatics. wbrennan@smainformatics.com webmaster@smainformatics.com http://www.smainformatics.com/SMADS/images/sma.png http://www.smainformatics.com/ 56 56 Delivering superior decision support tools and medical care data resources for healthcare business decision making by our clients. http://www.smainformatics.com/news/881/ by Gienna Shaw

Some hospitals pay thousands of dollars more than others for big-ticket medical devices, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators, The Wall Street Journal reported.  From defibrillators to hip replacements to drug-eluting stents, a portion of those higher costs are coming out of Medicare's pockets....]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/880/ by Berenson RA and Burton RA

This Health Policy Brief provides an overview of accountable care organizations (ACOs), their origins, and the current status of adoption by Medicare and private health insurance plans.

ACOs are networks of physicians and other providers that are held accountable for the cost and quality of the full continuum of care delivered to a group of patients. Although the ACO model is being adopted in the private sector, industry observers are keeping a close eye on how it is being implemented within the Medicare program. What are the next steps for ACOs? Will this new approach to health care delivery live up to the dual promises of reducing costs and improving quality of care?

Continue reading this article...]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/879/ by Eric Ford

In 2011, more than 80% of adults reported using the Internet as a resource for health care quality information. As a result, consumers are becoming increasingly health literate and are able to understand health analytics comparing provider performance. The 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey found that 34% of surveyed consumers used Web-based tools to make hospital and physician selections.

Continue reading this story...]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/878/ by Alison Rein, M.S., Hilary Kennedy, M.P.A., M.Sc., Ben DeCoudres, Rebecca Singer Cohen, M.P.P., Raj Sabharwal, M.P.H., and Gerry Fairbrother, Ph.D

The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program is funding 17 communities to build and strengthen their health information technology (IT) capabilities to enhance care coordination, improve patient and population health, and reduce or restrain costs. Based on the experiences and evidence generated by these communities, the program hopes to illustrate the possibilities of leveraging health IT to achieve desired goals. Doing so requires rigorous evaluation work, which is the subject of this issue brief.

Continue reading...]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/875/ by Dan Bowman
   
Healthcare organizations need to "serve as their own watchdog" to increase security and decrease data breaches, a new report from IT security audit firm Redspin concludes. The increase in "bring your own device" policies at various hospitals, in addition to the continued implementation of electronic health record systems, are too much for government alone to regulate, the report's authors say....]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/874/ Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) released its first draft National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda, which will be used to guide funding announcements for comparative clinical effectiveness research. The proposed national priorities for research are as follows:...]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/871/
Continue reading this story...]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/869/ by: Roy Edroso

The GAO finds that CMS is spending too much on Medicare Advantage, or rather more too much more than CMS thought.

In recent years, administrative groups including MedPAC worried that "differences in diagnostic coding between MA plans and Medicare FFS (fee for service) could lead to inappropriately high MA risk scores and payments to MA plans," GAO recaps. So CMS looked into it, estimated the overpayment, and made approriate changes to the codes....]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/868/ by: Roy Edroso

OIG gave an incomplete report on physicians who'd opted out of the Medicare system -- because they couldn't get MACs to give them enough data to make a judgement.

OIG wanted data on physicians who'd opted out between January 2009 and June 2011, and to that end asked the MACs, who are supposed to keep track of these things, and legacy carriers for their files from the period.

Continue reading this story...]]> http://www.smainformatics.com/news/867/ CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report....]]>