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The Food and Drug Administration is weighing the benefits and risks of two experimental colon cancer screening tests which use DNA from a patient's stool to detect dangerous tumors and growths.

Providers seeking to treat patients using telemedicine will be required to deliver the same standard of care as they would if they were treating them in person, at least according to a proposal from The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). In fact, these new telemedicine policy guidelines intend to solidify patients' welfare.

Figures from 2010 show that 71 Chicago-area hospitals covering seven counties discharged about 1.02 million patients; by 2012, that number had dropped about 5 percent, to 970,000 discharges, according to the January report.

A new tier of coverage should be added to the health law's online marketplaces, or exchanges, that would be less comprehensive than what plans are now required to offer, the head of the health insurance industry's trade group said Sunday.

States with broader Medicaid coverage have lower incidences of kidney failure and smaller insurance-related gaps in access to kidney disease care.

The Federation of State Medical Boards will vote next month on a new telemedicine policy that codifies that medical care takes place where a patient, not a provider, is located.

Despite ACA stipulations, patients with cancer may face new barriers to care as they shop for healthcare plans on the state and federal insurance exchanges.

Emergency department usage in Massachusetts rose slightly both during and immediately after implementation of a 2006 state law expanding health care access, a sign that broader availability of insurance may increase use of the ED.

As Congress tries to reform Medicare, the program's independent advisor has its own suggestions, including a call to end to what has become a revenue buffer for many hospitals and an integral part of their physician acquisition strategies.

Team collaboration and coordination will be necessary if health systems are to become more accountable for patient-centered outcomes. In particular, frontline healthcare workers have been identified as having the most critical role in engaging with patients.

Nebraska legislators spent the past year crafting a conservative version of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion that they hoped would gain support in a pretty red state. But after a failed vote in the state legislature Wednesday, the Medicaid expansion is officially dead in Nebraska this year.

More than half of adults between ages 40 and 75 who need help managing cholesterol would be eligible for statin therapy for the prevention of heart disease on the basis of the newest American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines, finds an analysis published Wednesday.

A US Health and Human Services Department (HHS) proposal aims to ease the concerns of consumers who remain frustrated with the health insurance exchanges (HIEs). The plan includes a variety of new insurance standards that would improve the consumer experience of shopping for a health insurance plan on the state and federal exchanges.

Health information technology is most useful at the point of care so why do so many emergency medical services (EMS) professionals lack access to patient health information where it is likely to prove so effective?

Cancer patients relieved that they can get insurance coverage because of the new health care law may be disappointed to learn that some the nation's best cancer hospitals are off-limits.

Medicare doctors are accustomed to wearing the white coats and diagnosing others' problems. But in coming months they may feel more like they're the ones wearing backless hospital gowns, as the federal government reveals previously undisclosed information about doctors' finances and performance.

Currently, more than 600 accountable care organizations (ACOs) have been established throughout the United States. However, a recent study finds that more than half of physician groups remain hesitant to join an ACO.

The Obama administration issued sweeping new proposed rules late Friday affecting provider networks in insurance exchange plans, consumer access to quality information about plans, selection of plans in the small business exchanges, state rules on enrollment navigators, and reinsurance and medical loss ratios for insurers.

Dramatic progress has been made in reducing colon cancer incidence and death rates in the U.S., but concerns remain about striking racial and socio-economic disparities, according to new national statistics on colorectal cancer.

Brain scans remain "substantially overused" on patients who visit the doctor complaining of headaches and migraines, despite multiple guidelines recommending against their use. Physicians must be vigilant about having conversations with patients about the risks, neurologists say.

U.S. patients not only are spending too much on medical treatments, there are still too many ways dollar-driven health care causes harm, according to a top official with the American Cancer Society.

Participants in the federal high-risk pool created in the health law will have another month to find coverage, the Obama administration announced Friday.

The risk corridor program, a controversial provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), received $5.5 billion in federal funding on Friday.

The Obama administration is requiring health plans in Obamacare insurance marketplaces to include a more robust offering of care providers in 2015 after some early backlash over limited networks in the health care law's first year.

The Sustainable Growth Formula (SGR) Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act has been framed as a bipartisan solution to establishing a permanent doc fix. The only problem, it seems, is how Congress will pay for the SGR's elimination.

For many months now, the AAFP has urged family physicians to prepare for this year's Oct. 1 deadline for implementation of the ICD-10-CM code sets for outpatient diagnostic coding.

The White House has decided to reverse roughly $10 billion in cuts to the cost-sharing subsidies that were part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. That program was originally expected to be slashed by 7.3 % in fiscal 2015 and beyond as part of the sequester cuts.

Criminals are stealing patient records to commit medical identity theft. And the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made the situation worse, according to a new report from privacy and information security research firm Ponemon Institute.

Health insurance companies across the country remain wary of setting their health plan prices for the 2015 insurance exchanges due to a lack of data needed to make evidence-based decisions.

Health plans with narrow provider networks-which met with fierce backlash from patients and providers during the last go-around in the 1990s-are once again vulnerable to negative public opinion and legislative action.