Jeff Lagasse

Author's posts

Elizabeth Fowler to lead CMMI as HHS announces new spate of hires

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced additional Biden Administration appointments, including the naming of Elizabeth Fowler to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation as director and deputy administrator.
As head…

Kindred Healthcare and Mercy acquire Everest Rehabilitation Hospital of Oklahoma City

Kindred Healthcare and Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City have acquired Everest Rehabilitation Hospital of Oklahoma City, the organizations announced today. Kindred and Mercy will operate the hospital, now renamed Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Oklahoma City …

Lowering anesthesiology costs is a tangible benefit of value-based care frameworks

In an effort to shift the foundation of healthcare reimbursement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is making a push for a larger percentage of reimbursements to be tied to value-based care contracts. Anesthesiology will be at or near the …

Financial incentives for hospitals spur rapid changes to opioid use disorder treatment

Hospital emergency departments not only care for patients with overdose and other complications from opioid use, but they also serve as vital touch points to engage patients into longer-term treatment. After an overdose, patients are at risk for repeat…

OIG: Hospitals are upcoding severity levels for Medicare patients

Inpatient hospital stays have become more expensive to the Medicare program, and it’s a trend that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic. A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General uncovered a possi…

Cigna’s Evernorth subsidiary purchasing MDLive in bid to expand telehealth services

Telehealth has come of age during the COVID-19 pandemic, and major insurer Cigna is betting on it continuing, with its healthcare services subsidiary Evernorth poised to purchase telehealth provider MDLive.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the d…

Biden Administration secures supply of new COVID-19 therapeutic treatment

As of Friday, the Biden Administration has secured a supply of a recently authorized COVID-19 therapeutic treatment, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense collaborating to purchase 100,000 courses of a seco…

Human rights law can provide a fair, transparent framework for vaccine allocations

As governments around the world wrestle with the question of designing a fair system to allocate their COVID-19 vaccine supplies for maximum protection against the pandemic, a team of researchers, led by Dr. Sharifah Sekalala of Warwick Law School, pro…

Advancements in automation are cutting into the rising costs of manual healthcare transactions

Inefficiency is an issue that continues to plague many areas of healthcare, particularly when it comes to manual administrative functions. While the industry is increasingly harnessing technology — evidenced by the use of telehealth and the push for e…

Disadvantaged census areas are linked to COVID-19 incidence

An LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health report has found a positive association between social vulnerability and COVID-19 incidence at the census tract level, and recommends that more resources be allocated to socially vulnerable populations …