Affordable Care Act (ACA)

See the following -

Future Osteopathic Physicians Dedicated To Providing Primary Care As Family Medicine Remains Largest Matched Specialty

Press Release | American Osteopathic Association (AOA) | February 10, 2014

Between aging baby boomers requiring more medical attention for chronic conditions and millions of Americans gaining access to medical care under the Affordable Care Act, the country’s need for primary care physicians has never been greater. The osteopathic medical profession is doing its part to meet this need as the majority of osteopathic medical students and recent graduates matched into primary care residency programs [...]. Read More »

Geraldo Rivera Supports Single Payer

Don McCanne | Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) | November 6, 2013

[...] Geraldo Rivera was quite sincere when, on his radio show, he discussed briefly the serious flaws of Obamacare and then explicitly supported single payer – Medicare for everybody. This is from a Republican who also has a show (“Geraldo-at-Large”) on the Fox News Channel. Read More »

Github To White House: Open Source Your HealthCare.gov Code And Let Us Help

Christina Farr | VentureBeat | November 1, 2013

Healthcare.gov has been referred to by the national press as “excruciatingly embarrassing,” “a poster child for the federal government’s technical ineptitude,” and “a mess.” [...] Silicon Valley’s technology entrepreneurs have described in recent interviews how they would have approached the project differently from the start. Read More »

Glaser: Healthcare Is Amid Fifth IT Revolution

Tom Sullivan | Government Health IT | June 12, 2013

When Siemens Health Services CEO John Glaser’s daughter graduated from medical school this past weekend, it was a proud day for her and for him. [...] Read More »

Godzilla Has Risen: The Insurance Industry Under The ACA

Emily Dalton | Physicians for A National Health Program | July 3, 2014

...Despite all the hopes many of us had for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the current system of medical insurance is a dysfunctional nightmare...

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Good Enough For Government Work? The Contractors Building Obamacare

Bill Allison | Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group | October 9, 2013

[...As] head-scratching continues about how a famously web-savvy administration could have flubbed its Internet homework so badly, an examination by the Sunlight Foundation shows the administration turned the task of building its futuristic new health care technology planning and programming over to legacy contractors with deep political pockets. Read More »

Good News On Innovation And Health Care

Kathleen Sebelius | The White House Blog | May 28, 2013

A recent New York Times column [...] echoes what we’ve been hearing from health care providers and innovators: Data that support medical decision-making and collaboration, dovetailing with new tools in the Affordable Care Act, are spurring the innovation necessary to deliver improved health care for more people at affordable prices. Read More »

GOP Wants Sebelius Fired Over Glitch-Filled Launch Of HealthCare.gov

Clara Ritger | Nextgov | October 18, 2013

After failing to put a dent in the Affordable Care Act through the shutdown and debt ceiling deal, the Republican Party shifted its focus to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Read More »

Government Taps Engineers From Google, Red Hat To Fix Healthcare.gov

Adrianne Jeffries | The Verge | October 31, 2013

The government has tapped engineers at Google, Oracle, and Red Hat, among other companies, to assist in untangling the problems with its online health insurance marketplace. The site, a key part of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform effort, has numerous bugs that have prevented Americans from signing up for health insurance...

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Greed, Fear And Other Barriers To Health Care As A Human Right

Philip Caper | Bangor Daily News | April 18, 2013

Of all the wealthy countries, only the United States has so far failed to treat health care as a human right. A human right to health care means that everybody receives the same health care whatever their age, gender, health or employment status, racial or religious background, sexual orientation, or wealth and income level. Read More »

Grim Outlook For Healthcare, Hospital Sector In 2015: Rating Agencies

Robin Respaut | Reuters | December 16, 2014

The outlook for non-profit healthcare remains dour for 2015, as hospital operating margins continue to face pressure from rising costs and weaker reimbursement...

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Group Advocates For Single-Payer System Over HIX

Tammy Worth | Government Health IT | March 17, 2014

Even as the Affordable Care Act is in its nascent stages, some states are already looking toward 2017 when they can request waivers to opt out of the healthcare exchanges. And a small, but persistent, movement has popped up toward a single payer system as an alternative to participating in the exchanges.

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Halamka: 2015 In Review

It’s now December and as each year ends, I always look back on the challenges and achievements of the past 12 months. Here’s my sense of 2015. ICD10 - billions were spent, countless other projects were delayed, and the transition occurred on October 1 without a major incident...Did we get our money’s worth? I have argued and will continue to assert that ICD-10 benefited no one. The diagnoses used are more variable so there is less precision in their use. Clinical documentation (in general in the industry) does not have the specificity needed to justify the more granular ICD-10 codes. The notion that quality measures can now be computed more accurately from ICD-10 coded administrative data is just not true...

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Halamka: Stage 2 Meaningful Use, ICD-10 Timelines Unrealistic

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | November 20, 2013

The current slew of health IT initiatives slated to hit the healthcare industry over the next year or so place unrealistic expectations on beleaguered providers [...]. Between Stage 2 of meaningful use, ICD-10 implementation, the HIPAA Omnibus rule, and the Affordable Care Act, providers simply have too much to handle in too short a timeframe to make everything work the way rule makers hope it will. [...] Read More »

Halamka: What Keeps Me Up At Night - Fall 2013

John Halamka | Life As A Healthcare CIO | September 3, 2013

All of these challenges can be conquered. For nearly 20 years, I've led an IT organization that has continuously delivered miracles with 1.9% of the operating budget.  I am ready for the challenges ahead but wonder if mergers/acquisitions, regulatory uncertainty, MU2 certification challenges, resource constraints, and real time demands will create a set of constraints that are impossible to optimize.
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