Modern Healthcare
Small-business exchanges hope for a better 2015 after rocky start
July,10,2014
by:
Health insurance marketplaces for small businesses have largely been a bust in their first year of operations. That's in large part because online enrollment hasn't been available for businesses in the 32 states relying on the federal HealthCare.gov website. In addition, several state-based exchanges, most notably Covered California, also have required businesses to send in paper applications to enroll. That undoubtedly served as a deterrent for companies with less than 50 employees that might otherwise have considered shopping for coverage through the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Read More
MobiHealtNews
CDC: 41 percent of US households now mobile-only
July,10,2014
by: Aditi Pai
The percentage of households in the US that do not have landline phones and rely on mobile phones continues to rise. The annual CDC survey recently found that the number now stands at 41 percent.Just over 57 percent of consumers with a landline described their health status as excellent or very good, compared to 63.8 percent of consumers who only use a mobile phone, according to the recent CDC survey of 17,967 consumers. In the group of consumers surveyed, 9,648 had a landline and may have also had a mobile phone, 7,875 only had mobile phones, and 444 said they were phoneless altogether. Read More
EHR Intelligence
Study: Electronic health records don’t increase Medicare fraud
July,09,2014
by: Jennifer Bresnick
Fears about providers taking advantage of EHR technology to commit Medicare fraud may be unfounded, according to a study published online this week in Health Affairs. Concerns over intentional and inadvertent fraud, committed by copying and pasting inaccurate documentation or selecting incorrect billing codes, are not widespread enough to commit significant resources towards policy changes, found Julia Adler-Milstein, University of Michigan assistant professor of information, and Ashish K. Jha, Harvard professor of public health. Read More
Fierce Health IT
CMS proposes expanded telehealth coverage for 2015
July,03,2014
by: Dan Bowman
Annual wellness visits and psychotherapy are among four services the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposes that Medicare beneficiaries can receive via telehealth, according to a proposed update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for the 2015 calendar year issued late Thursday. Under the proposal, annual wellness visits and psychotherapy, as well as psychoanalysis and "prolonged evaluation and management services," would be covered as Category 1 services. Such services, according to CMS, are defined as "similar to professional consultations, office visits and office psychiatry services" currently covered by the agency. Read More
