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The Arkansas House failed Tuesday to renew the state's compromise Medicaid expansion plan, leaving in limbo the future of a program heralded as a model for Republican-leaning states to implement the federal health overhaul.

To improve care, policy analysts and health leaders recommend there be fewer and narrower quality measures.

Companies that make generic drugs, the medications most Americans buy, are fighting to kill a proposed federal regulation that would require them for the first time to warn patients of all the known health risks of each drug they sell.

Using bronchiolitis clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) was linked to reduced use of chest X-rays (CXRs), bronchodilators, steroids, and length of stay (LOS) in hospitalized children without affecting 7-day all-cause readmissions.

The health insurance industry will be closely watching on Friday when the CMS is scheduled to release initial guidance on Medicare Advantage rates for 2015.

Implementing the new ICD-10 procedural and diagnostic codes, which the CMS says must happen by Oct. 1, will be more expensive than previously estimated, according to new research. But costs will vary widely depending on practice circumstances.

Bringing together all of the areas of the hospital together allowed the hospital to create a system of transparency and accountability. In turn, this has ensured that everyone is doing what they are supposed, when they are supposed to.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore suggest that controlling the costs to treat cancer without increasing risk to patients requires a collaborative approach.

Most states are still lagging when it comes to sign-ups under President Obama's health care law, but an Associated Press analysis of numbers reported Wednesday finds a dozen high-achievers getting ahead of the game.

In response to a request for comment issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on its proposed Quality Strategy, the American Hospital Association is calling for more significant alignment of its quality measurement activities in order to reduce the burden on hospitals and providers.

The malady of rising medical costs is acute, especially in the field of oncology. As populations age, new cancer cases are expected to reach 21.4 million in 2030, while treatment costs are projected to increase 40 percent by 2020.

New research offers high-quality, empirical data on the V-BID plan features that appear most effective for stimulating greater medication adherence.

Some backers of the 2010 health-care law are pushing to create a new kind of insurance coverage that the measure essentially had ruled out: policies offering lower premiums but significantly higher out-of-pocket costs than those now available.

Current reform efforts seek to tie providers' pay with performance, yet a recent finding suggests that less than 15% of internal medicine residency programs provide education that focuses on such training.

The likelihood of a positive outcome for a patient across the continuum of care is closely tied to the ability of the patient's health information to follow suit.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday granted accelerated approval for the expanded use of ibrutinib, marketed as Imbruvica, for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who have previously received at least one therapy. The therapy is notable for its relative lack of toxic effects.

Federal regulators are trying to set expectations and a tentative schedule for public exchange plans in 2015; they're also proposing a new approach to network adequacy and essential community providers, after complaints from consumers and providers in a few markets.

Measuring the patient's experience of care will help EMS be perceived as modern healthcare providers.

Billions of dollars are wasted and thousands of lives lost each year through inefficient or ineffective medication management. It has been estimated that the misuse of prescription drugs in our healthcare system is up to a $300 billion problem annually.

The value of the mammogram is being questioned after 1 study found that the mortality rates resulting from breast cancer were the same in women who got screened and those who did not.

The technological underpinnings for an accountable care organization (ACO) include all the basic healthcare IT you have heard so much about, including electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), and health information exchange (HIE) for transmitting patient data between participating organizations that are not necessarily all on the same EHR.

The American Medical Association pledged its full support for legislation repealing the Medicare sustainable growth-rate physician payment formula.

Select employers will have until January 1, 2016, to comply with a health insurance mandate under the Affordable Care Act(ACA). Originally, employers with 50 to 99 workers would have faced a penalty if they did not offer health insurance to their employees in 2014.

Once limited to filling and dispensing drugs, pharmacists are increasingly providing direct care to patients. Across the country, they are working with doctors to give immunizations and help patients safely manage medications.

Providing a solid base of primary-care service and coordinating specialty care for high-risk patients has been advocated as a method of lowering overall healthcare costs. Doing so would presumably reduce repeat hospitalization and emergency department visits.

The Obama administration announced Monday it would give medium-sized employers an extra year, until 2016, before they must offer health insurance to their full-time workers.

Susan Fox, director, business and product development, US Script, Inc, says the prescription benefit provides a unique opportunity to attract, attain, serve, and retain members in exchange insurance plans

Earning Too Little for Health-Law Subsidies but Ineligible for Benefits Under Existing Medicaid Programs

The CMS is extending the deadline for physicians and other eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR incentive program for the 2013 reporting year and is offering some hospitals a second chance at receiving payment-as well as possible relief from the program's 2015 penalties for failing to comply in 2013.

With hospitals vehemently opposed to more Medicare cuts to fund the bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday that would permanently end the annual charade around physician pay cuts, Congress may have to enact some form of payment or tax reform if it expects to get the job done this year.