An April report conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights a lack of transparency in federal review of section 1115 Medicaid waiver proposals. While acknowledging that CMS has made progress toward transparency, the GAO...
Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, following a $225 million settlement agreement with the federal government over a criminal and civil investigation into the shady marketing practices to sell its highly addictive fentanyl spray, Subsys.
Due to the declared bankruptcy, Insys will be...
A Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) report published on Monday calls out immigration enforcement for its negligence in migrant healthcare, interviewing various medical professional along the Southern border who recounted instances of migrants being arrested before surgery and held in chains preventing the completion of a proper...
The technology changes were made possible through intense collaboration between department physicians and staff and IT professionals.
VP and Chief Medical Information Officer Vinay Vaidya, MD, cites improvements in clinical documentation and report dashboards across all ambulatory clinics for raising physician productivity and...
The independent advocacy organization for Arizona children reviews key pieces of legislation it supported or opposed in the most recent session of the Arizona Legislature.
The organization believes legislators should be held accountable and measured on their performance. Its report card tracked Arizona lawmakers' votes on five bills...
In 2018, Humana enjoyed more than 15 percent of the MA market share in Arizona, the same year the insurer acquired hospice care giant Kindred Healthcare and Curo Health Services, a hospice provider with 245 locations in 22 states, including Arizona.
When Medicare Advantage patients enter into hospice care coverage for non-curative...
According to the HHS Office of the Inspector General, the hospital overstated its wages and wage-related costs by $12.3 million - an error that could have resulted in more than $11 in overpayments to Arizona hospitals.
The 595-bed nonprofit hospital in midtown Phoenix is part of the CommonSpirit (formerly Dignity Health)...
The partnership means 25,000 patients in Maricopa and Pinal county can use their Care.Wallet to help manage their diabetes.The local ACO is a national leader in the adoption of blockchain technology and along with collaborators Boehringer Ingelheim and Solve.Com, created the Diabetes Care Administration Network mobile application, the...
A recent study estimated physician burnout costs the nation's healthcare system more than $4.5 billion annually, conservative in its analysis as it only factors in lost work hours, lost income from open positions and replacement costs.
Because of the increased stress of administrative duties and paperwork placed on physicians,...
Some straightforward advice on how to engage patients, boost brand awareness and stay on the right side of HIPAA.
Get tips from Rose de Fremery, a writer who stays on top of digital culture and is a social media SME. She provides a smart check list on how healthcare organizations can use social media marketing and a few strategies for...
When CMS changed the DSH reimbursement formula for FY2012 and counted Medicare Advantage patients as Medicare Part A entitled patients, the Supreme Court ruled it was a change to a "substantive legal standard" that required the agency to offer public notice and a 60-day comment period. The 7-1 decision in Azar v Allina Health Services...
Join Arizona healthcare leaders in Tucson, Phoenix or Flagstaff for our summer meeting complete with guest speakers on the hottest trends in Arizona healthcare along with data updates for commercial, Medicare, AHCCCS, Exchange and ACO markets.
2019 Summer State of the State
Join THR Publisher and healthcare consultant Jim...
Advocates say like other value-based arrangements for Medicare patients, the initiative has applications for private payers.
No word from CMS yet, but the proposed Acute Unscheduled Care Model (AUCM) invites emergency physicians to participate in Advanced Alternative Payment Models (AAPMs) by accepting financial risk directly...
A security breach reported by the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) earlier last month could have resulted in stolen personal, financial and medical information of almost 20 million patients from LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics combined.
Quest Diagnostics was the first to report the transgression in a Securities and Exchange...
The merger of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health created CommonSpirit Health in February.
According to Modern Healthcare, the two-month old system reported an operating gain of $144 million in the prior-year period, a gain derived from the two separate systems, pre-merger. CommonSpirit's operating margin fell from 2...
Jake Golich has been with the Steward hospital, Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa for about two years; He will begin his work as CEO at St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana this summer on July 8.
Golich’s community involvement in Arizona included board membership on the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, service as a...
Former chief medical officer (CMO) at Florence Hospital at Anthem and Gilbert Hospital is urging a Maricopa County judge to reconsider a decision to destroy over 300 patient health records after only 90 days of access. The two hospitals closed last year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and patients could not access their medical...
After years of noncompliance in inmate care, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver threatened additional fines of more that $1 million earlier last month and now the Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) is asking her to hold off on imposing the financial penalties.
The inmate lawsuit was settled in 2015, but over three years later,...
Arizona's worsening hepatitis A outbreak has turned fatal as state officials confirmed two deaths last week. The outbreak is a nationwide issue with more than 20 other states experiencing a widespread contraction of the contagious liver disease. In Arizona, health officials have confirmed 339 cases since the outbreak's inception in...
Northern and Southeastern Arizona are each getting 80-bed facilities offering skilled nursing and memory care beds thanks in part to $27 million in funding allocated by the Arizona Legislature; federal dollars will cover the majority of construction costs.
Both locations are scheduled for completion in mid-2021 and each facility...
Arizona's Medicaid program is highlighted in the Department of Justice's FY 2018 annual report Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program, recently published with the Department of Health and Human Services
The Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program coordinates federal, state and local law enforcement activities to combat...
A who's who in healthcare advocacy is putting pressure on the Department of Health and Human Services to expand the duration and scope of the Next Generation ACO model to be a permanent, voluntary offering in the alternative payment model portfolio in 2021.The model is set to expire in 2020 and was launched by CMS' Center for Medicare...
Four Arizona nursing homes are candidates for CMS' Special Focus Facilities (SFF) program, which identifies nursing homes with a history of serious quality issues and provides special program to stimulate improvements in their quality of care; SFF candidates also have a history of care issues but receive no extra oversight.
The...
Now with almost 50 locations, Banner Urgent Care offers treatment for non-life threatening illnesses and injuries from 7am to 8pm to downtown students and residents seven days a week at the northwest corner of First and Washington streets, a stone's throw away from the Phoenix light rail.
The facility will offer treatment for...
The CMS Oncology Care Model, which begins in July, moves practices to two-sided risk, where the practices may be responsible for costs over target. According to Avalere Health, about 70% of oncology practices participating would owe the CMS money under the current arrangement. Avalere estimates that almost all programs will fare better...
