Avicenna Medical Blog

Care Management Weekly News Update 2/19/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Feb 19, 2025 @ 11:30 AM

The opening session at the ViVE conference, taking place this week at Nashville’s Music City Center, on Feb. 17, had speakers acknowledging the complex and challenging policy and operational landscape around healthcare information technology adoption, along with statements strongly affirming the role of advancing technology promising to help clinicians and patient care organizations deliver...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 2/12/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Feb 12, 2025 @ 12:22 PM

The US Department of Veterans Affairs has restarted a project to implement Oracle electronic health records in its hospitals after the project was suspended in 2023. The new payments relate toa $300 million agreementfor optimization of the electronic health records (EHR) management system anda $29 million dealfor identity and access management support and enhancement, published...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 2/6/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, Feb 06, 2025 @ 11:45 AM

In 2022, the Biden Administration enacted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at reducing healthcare costs. Among its most significant provisions was the ability for Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, a move that was hailed as a potential game-changer for lowering healthcare expenses. While the immediate effects of the IRA’s...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 1/29/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Jan 29, 2025 @ 11:30 AM

Though not quite reaching 2023’s highs, healthcare bankruptcies remained elevated across 2024 with a six-year high among physician practices as well as “the largest hospital sector bankruptcy by far in the last 30 years,” according to new research from Gibbins Advisors. The restructuring advisory firm’s Thursday report outlined 57 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings among...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 1/22/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Jan 22, 2025 @ 11:30 AM

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) will recommend Congress bump Medicare pay rates for hospitals in 2026. In a public meeting held Thursday, the group’s commissioners voted in favor of draft recommendations to increase general acute care hospitals’ base payment rates by the amount specified in current law plus an additional 1%. Such an increase would apply to inpatient and...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 1/15/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Jan 15, 2025 @ 11:45 AM

The pharmaceutical supply chain is a sector infamous for glacially slow adjustments, lackluster reform, lack of transparency and massive anti-competitive conglomerates. Years of dominance by the three major vertically integrated pharmacy benefit managers that control the bulk of the market have placed great strain on the healthcare industry. However, a recent confluence of events marks...
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Care Management Weekly News Update 1/8/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Jan 08, 2025 @ 11:30 AM

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is beginning early-stage planning to deploy the Oracle Health-based Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to four Michigan facilities — Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit, and Saginaw — in mid-2026. This decision comes after VA has been working to make improvements to the EHR system during a pause in deployments announced in April 2023. These improvement efforts...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 1/2/25

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, Jan 02, 2025 @ 11:45 AM

With large data breaches increasing in healthcare, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is proposing tomodify the HIPAA Security Rule to require health plans, clearinghouses and most providers and their business associates to strengthen cybersecurity protections for individuals’ protected health information. This marks the first time HHS has sought...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 12/18/24

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, Dec 18, 2024 @ 11:30 AM

HHSissueda new rule Dec. 11 in a bid to make sharing health information easier and more secure. This rule is part of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), which aims to create a unified way for healthcare organizations to share electronic health information while keeping it private and secure.

GAO Makes Recommendations to VHA to Improve Oversight

It has been nearly a...

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Care Management Weekly News Update 12/12/24

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, Dec 12, 2024 @ 11:30 AM

A team of researchers at Brown University, writing in the December issue of Health Affairs, is arguing that state employee health plans could institute payment caps that would save a great deal of money while not harming hospitals. Often the largest purchaser of commercial health insurance in their state, state employee health plans possess a unique opportunity to implement cost...

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