Medicare

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Say No To Bureaucrats And Yes To Direct Care

John Umbehr | KevinMD.com | May 17, 2014

Yes, it really is time to revoke the health care mandates issued by bureaucrats who are not in the profession of actual healing.  Daniel F. Craviotto Jr. writes in the Wall Street Journal, “In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship.”...

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Senators Grassley, Wyden Call For More Billing Transparency

Diana Manos | Government Health IT | June 5, 2013

“Medicare is a $500 billion program with billions of dollars going out in error each year,” Grassley said June 4 in a news release. “The bad actors get bigger and bolder all the time. They stay out of law enforcement’s reach all too often. It’s time to try new things.” Read More »

Senators Grassley, Wyden Call For More Billing Transparency

Diana Manos | Government Health IT | June 5, 2013

“Medicare is a $500 billion program with billions of dollars going out in error each year,” Grassley said June 4 in a news release. “The bad actors get bigger and bolder all the time. They stay out of law enforcement’s reach all too often. It’s time to try new things.” Read More »

Signs of Progress on Government 2.0

Rich Miller | Data Center Knowledge | September 21, 2011

Tim O’Reilly framed the discussion with a question: “What if government regulation wasn’t all 19th century stacks of paper, but operated with the efficiency of Google search?” The question is at the heart of Government 2.0, the effort to use data and technology to transform government into a platform for innovation. Read More »

Single Payer Is Needed Cure

Jack Bernard | Charlotte Observer | June 10, 2013

After spending 25 years in the health care field, most of it related to making hospitals more efficient and effective, I have become skeptical of many of Washington’s reform efforts, especially by my party, the GOP. Read More »

Single-Payer Prescription For What Ails Obamacare

Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan | Democracy Now! | October 10, 2013

“We apologize for the inconvenience. The Marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance and will be back up Monday 10/7/3013.” You read it right, 3013. That was the message on the homepage of the New York state health insurance exchange website this past weekend. Read More »

Single-Payer Proponents Take To The Hill

Staff Writer | Government Health IT | May 22, 2014

Advocates for a single-payer “Medicare for all” health system are fanning out across Capitol Hill this week, lobbying members of Congress.  

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SOS: Puerto Rico Is Losing Doctors, Leaving Patients Stranded

Greg Allen | NPR | March 12, 2016

Puerto Rico is losing people. Due to a decade-long recession, more than 50,000 residents leave the U.S. territory each year—most for jobs and new lives on the mainland. This issue is especially affecting healthcare, where it's estimated that at least one doctor leaves Puerto Rico every day. The mass exodus of doctors is creating vacancies that are hard to fill and waiting lists for patient care. Dr. Antonio Peraza is among those doctors who recently left for the mainland. He specializes in internal medicine and for nearly 14 years, had a private practice in Bayamon, Puerto Rico...

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Spinal Fusions Serve As Case Study For Debate Over When Certain Surgeries Are Necessary

Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating | The Washington Post | October 24, 2013

By some measures, Federico C. Vinas was a star surgeon. He performed three or four surgeries on a typical weekday at the Daytona Beach, Fla., hospital that employed him, and a review showed him to be nearly five times as busy as other neurosurgeons. The hospital paid him hundreds of thousands in incentive pay. In all, he earned as much as $1.9 million a year... Read More »

Stimulus funding increases use of Health IT by Medicaid Hospitals

John Reichard | CQ HealthBeat | December 14, 2012

Hospitals in the Medicaid program have sharply increased their use of health information technology (IT) in response to about $12 billion in incentive payments available to them between 2011 and 2019 under the economic stimulus law, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. Read More »

Strengthening Protection of Patient Medical Data

Adam Tanner | The Century Foundation | January 10, 2017

Americans seeking medical care expect a certain level of privacy. Indeed, the need for patient privacy is a principle dating back to antiquity, and is codified in U.S. law, most notably the Privacy Rule of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which establishes standards that work toward protecting patient health information. But the world of information is rapidly changing, and in this environment, U.S. rules fall precariously short in protecting our medical data...

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Study Shows Electronic Health Information Exchanges Could Cut Billions in Medicare Spending

Press Release | University of Notre Dame | September 13, 2017

Spending on entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid consumes some two-thirds of all federal spending, but new research from the University of Notre Dame shows that information technology investments in health care lead to significant spending reductions — potentially in the billions of dollars...

Study: Brand Name Drugs Drive Up Medicare Spending

Ankita Rao | The Washington Post | June 11, 2013

A new study suggests that cash-strapped Medicare missed an opportunity to save more than $1 billion by not addressing the varying costs and use of prescription drugs. Read More »

Study: EHR-Related Safety Issues Linger Long After Implementation

Staff Writer | iHealthBeat | June 23, 2014

Patient safety issues stemming from electronic health record systems continue long after implementation, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Modern Healthcare reports...

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Surprise: Every American Will Not Have An Electronic Health Record This Year

Bob Brewin | Nextgov.com | October 9, 2014

In 2004, President George W. Bush kicked off a project designed to provide most Americans with an electronic health record in 2014. That was followed by a similar goal set by President Barack Obama in 2009.  But as the end of 2014 comes nearer, these ambitious goals still have not been met...

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