House Committees Give Health IT bills Thumbs Up    

The House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed legislation that would make telehealth a core benefit in Medicare Advantage plans. Representative Diane Black stated, “This bill is about upgrading current law to not just allow but actually to encourage the use of telehealth technology to bring the best healthcare possible to our seniors, while also working to address those skyrocketing healthcare costs.” 

Data Shows Link Between Hospital Quality and Readmission Rates

Researchers examined a hospitalwide readmissions cohort of more than 2.7 million Medicare patients over age 65. They found that hospitals in the highest performance quartile for quality had significantly lower 30-day readmission rates than those in the lowest quartile.

Reinventing Utilization Management (UM) to Bring Value to the Point of Care

A bridge between the current volume-based systems can be built by starting with the current, albeit flawed, pre-authorization model as a foundation, enhancing current core systems and investments rather than trying to completely rebuild healthcare. The result is a new form of utilization management (UM) that shifts the balance of interactions from post-care decision with claims to pre-care decisions.

The Importance of Preventive Care Strategies in a Changing Healthcare Environment

The industry shift to value-based reimbursement models has underscored the importance of immunizations as a cost-effective preventive care strategy that can improve health outcomes for vulnerable patients.