The federal government's jobs report last month left many eager to find out if the next report would again show weak gains or even losses in hospital employment in spite of durable growth in the healthcare sector at large.
But anyone who keeps close tabs on healthcare employment woke up this morning—the first Friday of October—without the monthly fix of federal jobs data thanks to the government shutdown in Washington.
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There has been a lot of complaining lately about the lack of interoperability in healthcare information technology and how the inability of computers to communicate with each other impedes organizing population health-improvement systems. But two Southern California organizations that just announced a deal to open a string of primary-care health centers said interoperability concerns will not stand in the way.
Southern California's MemorialCare Health System and UC Irvine Health announced the collaboration Oct. 2. Although the hospitals and medical groups of the two systems use a mix of products that includes Allscripts, NextGen Healthcare as well as both Epic's hospital and ambulatory systems, organization executives say interfaces can be created to let them all talk to each other.
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The advent of recovery auditing in Medicare has led to a sharp increase in administrative appeals by hospitals, creating administrative logjams but not necessarily leading to victories for providers complaining about denied payments.
Between 2008 and 2012, the number of administrative appeals annually involving inpatient hospital care skyrocketed from 46,000 to 284,000, according to a report out today from HHS' Office of the Inspector General.
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A scheduled House committee hearing on the Food and Drug Administration's progress toward implementing a federal law requiring it to develop a regulatory strategy for health information technology was postponed Thursday, as the government shutdown continued into its third day.
Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, was scheduled to testify before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the Food and Drug Administration Safety Innovation Act.
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Planned Parenthood of the Heartland filed a lawsuit in federal court Sept. 30 asking a judge to grant a stay against a rule from the Iowa Board of Medicine that would restrict abortion access in the state.
On Aug. 30, members of the state board voted to adopt rules that would ban
telemedicine delivery for medical abortion and require that patients receive a physical examination before and after the administration of an abortion-inducing drug. The medical board asserts that the telemedicine practices “are inconsistent with the protocols approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the manufacturer of the drugs” because they don't include an in-person meeting with a physician.
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The annual Health 2.0 Conference is wrapping up in Santa Clara, Calif., today, and with it come several launches worth noting.
One is the start of a $100,000 developer's challenge, seeking cloud-based, “innovative health applications that will revolutionize the way physicians and hospitals educate patients,” according to the contest sponsors.
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As healthcare providers work to adopt electronic health records and achieve Stage 2 meaningful-use standards, most Americans are confused and concerned about the transition from paper to digital, according to a survey by Xerox.
Xerox, which polled about 2,000 U.S. adults in its fourth annual EHR survey, found that only 29% of them had been told by their physicians that their medical records would be converted from paper to digital format. And although most of the respondents think EHRs will reduce healthcare costs (62%) and improve quality of healthcare service (73%), even more (83%) worry about digital issues including security. Nearly seven out of 10 do not want their medical records in a digital format.
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More than 700,000 federal workers will be looking for ways to put food on the table as much of the federal government shut down Tuesday over budget squabbles in Congress.
But if you're a federal rat, it's still fat city. Federal mice, too.
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Diagnostic errors produce the vast majority of medical malpractice suits related to primary-care practice, and it's harder to successfully defend such cases than other types of malpractice suits, according to a report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Using health information technology to prevent these errors should be a priority, the authors said.
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and other Massachusetts organizations examined malpractice cases handled and closed by the state's two largest medical liability insurers from January 2005 through December 2009. They found 551 (7.7%) cases were primary-care related and, of these, 397 (72.1%) were associated with diagnosis errors.
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Keehan
Ascension Health, Bon Secours Health System, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association and the Federation of American Hospitals are among more than 900 organizations, providers and businesses helping Americans learn about the healthcare reform law and sign up for health insurance coverage, HHS announced one day before open enrollment begins on the law's health insurance exchanges.
Called “Champions for Coverage,” these volunteers—which include faith-based organizations, community health centers and bloggers—will use digital and print materials from the CMS to educate people about their options in the state health insurance exchanges that were created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment on the exchanges will last from October through March, and those who enroll by Dec. 15 will have coverage starting on Jan. 1, 2014.
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The Service Employees International Union today unveiled a Spanish-language video featuring two Latino doctors aimed at encouraging Latinos to enroll in a health plan through the new state insurance exchanges.
Two Latino physicians, Dr. Say Salomón and Dr. Michelle Espinoza, recorded videos in English and Spanish and talked about the benefits of signing up once state insurance exchanges become active Tuesday.
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