Category: Health Insurance

OCR imposes a $2.15 million civil penalty against Jackson Health System for alleged HIPAA violations

Two JHS employees allegedly accessed patient information without a clear job-related purpose.

Ownership of data is a heated debate

By law, patients own their own data, but access and understanding what’s in the record is not user friendly.

Flat or declining patient volumes is top revenue concern, new survey shows

Hospitals should obtain more valuable data insights, set performance improvement goals and better engaging physicians, finds Kaufman Hall.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: All About Medicaid

Medicare’s sister program actually covers more people than Medicare. It’s complex and sometimes confusing, but Medicaid is critical to states, health care providers and the more than 70 million people it serves. In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” host Julie Rovner interviews Diane Rowland of the Kaiser Family Foundation, one of the nation’s top Medicaid experts. Then Rovner, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Tami Luhby of CNN and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss some of the current debates surrounding Medicaid and its future.

One-fifth of patients are prescribed opioids after cardiac device implantation surgery

Prescription opioids are a major contributor to the opioid epidemic and are linked to prescription opioid abuse, addiction and overdose deaths.

Improvements needed across outpatient and ambulatory surgery settings, Leapfrog report shows

Among the gaps for both types of facilities are a lack of best practices for patient care and inadequate monitoring of board certifications.

ACA premiums are down 4% and more insurers are in market for 2020

President Trump, who was supposedly trying to sabotage the ACA, has been better at running it than President Obama, who wrote the law, says HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

Compression Garments Can Ease Lymphedema. Covering Costs? Not So Easy.

Private insurance plans vary in coverage for compression garments, and some fall short of meeting patients’ needs. Although Medicaid programs cover some of these expenses, Medicare does not.

Humana charges Teva, 36 other pharma companies, with generic price fixing

Their modus operandi was to avoid competition that would normally result in significant price erosion and savings for purchasers, particularly insurers like Humana, the lawsuit said.

CVS partners with UPS on drone delivery of drugs and retail products

"Three dimension" delivery service ramps up competition between CVS, Walgreens, Amazon and others.