As healthcare reform expands coverage, nonphysician providers are seeking to expand their portfolio of licensed services and are facing intense opposition from doctors to their efforts.
In California, three bills before the Legislature propose to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists, with one bill advancing and two bills being stalled.
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A new analysis suggests that smart design of the websites used for the new state insurance exchanges to enroll consumers in health plans could save consumers and the government more than $9 billion a year.
It highlights the difficulty for consumers of choosing a health plan that best fits their healthcare and financial circumstances even in the new reform environment where they can more easily make apples-to-apples comparisons.
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A patient engagement and reporting program linked to financial incentives yielded multiple improvements in health measures for employees of UnitedHealth Group, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
UnitedHealth employees enrolled in the health insurance company's Rewards for Health program were able to earn points good for premium reductions as high as $1,200 for family coverage. The rewards program used health screenings targeting diabetes, cancer and other diseases as well as more general weight control based on the worker's body mass index.
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The findings of a new study published this week in BMJ Quality & Safety show the first evidence that electronic health records can play a role in reducing hospital readmissions of high-risk heart failure patients.
The study evaluated more than 1,700 adult inpatients diagnosed with heart failure, myocardial infarction and pneumonia over a two-year period at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. With the use of software developed to assess the patients on a daily basis at highest risk, researchers were able reduce the readmission rate of those studied by 26%.
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It's Christmas in July for Medicare-participating physicians—though the gift is far from being delivered. On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth-rate formula and replace it with a stable system of payments to the nation's physicians.
For years, Congress has waited until the end of the calendar year to stave off a steep Medicare payment cut to physicians with a temporary fix.
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Supporters of the healthcare reform law got some good news from a survey just released by the healthcare policy briefing website The Morning Consult.
Nearly half of registered voters polled in the survey—47%—said they would be less likely to vote for a member of Congress in 2014 if the member tried to defund Obamacare as part of a federal budget package, compared with 28% who said they would be more likely to vote for the member.
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The American Nurses Association wants the federal government to require insurers selling plans on state insurance exchanges to have at least a certain percentage of advanced practice registered nurses in their provider networks.
The ANA proposed the minimum level would be equal to 10% of the number of APRNs who independently bill Medicare Part B in a state.
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Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the University of Pennsylvania bioethicist and oncologist who helped the White House draft the healthcare reform law, aims fire in today's Wall Street Journal at U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals" rankings. Calling the methodology behind the rankings "flawed to the point of being useless," he blasts their overreliance on reputation and a failure to take into account quality criteria such as hospital-acquired infections and incidence of preventable falls and bed sores.
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Mobile computing devices are becoming almost as much of an essential tool in U.S. physician practices as the exam table, according to a new survey.
Nearly 80% of 300 U.S. practicing physicians in primary care, family and internal medicine that were sampled and surveyed in April said they were using a smartphone in their “day-to-day practice.” Another 61% were using mobile tablets.
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Simply extending office hours may not be enough for pediatricians to persuade patients to come to them rather than to retail clinics, according to a new study posted on the JAMA Pediatrics website. It found that almost half of children's visits to in-store healthcare facilities occur when pediatric offices are likely to be open.
The survey conducted by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine found that when parents took their children to a retail clinic, 47% of the reported visits occurred between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays or between 8 a.m. and noon on Saturdays.
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Simply extending office hours may not be enough for pediatricians to persuade patients to come to them rather than to retail clinics, according to a new study posted on the JAMA Pediatrics website. It found that almost half of children's visits to in-store healthcare facilities occur when pediatric offices are likely to be open.
The survey conducted by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine found that when parents took their children to a retail clinic, 47% of the reported visits occurred between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays or between 8 a.m. and noon on Saturdays.
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