Dr. Christian Moher recognized as a national leader in changing the way opioids are prescribed and treating patients with chronic pain.
Moher, chief medical officer at Community Partners Integrated Healthcare, a division of Tucson-based...Arizona News
Humana, Kindred, Curo, two equity firms and Walmart all in the rumor mill.
The $1.4 billion deal brings together the Louisville-based health insurance giant; TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, the same group that has offered to buy the home care business of Kindred in Louisville. That deal still must get the green...National News
Posting of hospital prices, change meaningful use, long-term care hospital reimbursement and prices of immunotherapy drugs on the list.
Seema Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new requirement for online prices reflects the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to encourage patients to become...National News
To determine the validity of physician performance measures, a committee for the American College of Physicians created a five-item checklist to measure importance, appropriateness, strength of clinical evidence, feasibility of implementation and applicability.
CMS seeks to link 90 percent of physician payments under Medicare's...Arizona News
The $18.3 million settlement agreement released Friday by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, calls for a long list of reforms that Banner must implement then maintain for five years.
Banner's present legal trouble stemmed from a whistleblower complaint filed under the False Claims Act in 2013 by Cecilia...National News
The sheer volume of data in EHRs creates a staggering challenge in complex environments such as intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency medicine departments.
Individual clinicians may have to sift through more than 50,000 data points to find key information. This proliferation of data (both meaningful and meaningless) and the...Arizona News
House Bill 2322 calls for a combined 100 day maximum for processing a credentialing application and "loading" the provider into the claims payment system. Arizona provider advocate organizations worked tirelessly with the healthplan lobby to work out the details of this important legislation. The bill includes details regarding...National News
Dozens of drugs and medical devices are Chinese products that the Trump administration targeted for a potential 25 percent tariff in a proposal this week.
Pacemakers and artificial joints, defibrillators, dental fillings, lidocaine, birth-control pills and vaccines are all made in China, and all could be subject to new tariffs. The...National News
Described as an effort to drive competition and affordability within state health insurance markets.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma believes that the new rule will create a stable ACA health plan market that lowers premiums for consumers and provides a greater variety of health insurance options.
In a press release, Verma...National News
An online pharmacy that bills itself as Canada’s largest was fined for importing counterfeit cancer drugs and other unapproved pharmaceuticals into the United States.
Canada Drugs has filled millions of prescriptions by offering itself as a safe alternative for patients to save money on expensive drugs, and its founder, Kristian...Arizona News
Banner Health has agreed to pay the United States over $18 million to settle allegations that 12 of its hospitals in Arizona and Colorado knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare by admitting patients who could have been treated on a less costly outpatient basis.
The settlement resolves allegations that 12 Banner Health hospitals...National News
Currently 8 percent of dialysis in done in-home. CVS wants to change that.
HealthLeaders Media quotes Jack Curran, a senior analyst with IBISWorld.
The dialysis market right now is very concentrated. If any company is going to be able to move into this industry and succeed it is going to have to be a large company with a lot of...Arizona News
North Scottsdale Pediatrics altered its operations to include more technology-friendly scheduling tools and improve experience for young parents.
As reported in Athena Insight, the first change was ensuring that parents could reach the practice in the same way they connect to everything else in their lives: through their smartphones...National News
Previously, patients who have these medical devices have been denied MRI services because of concerns about their safety while undergoing the imaging procedures.
The devices include an implanted FDA-approved pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillator, cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemaker, or cardiac resynchronization...
At issue is a volume licensing agreement, meant for organizations with 500 or more users or devices that want to buy various Microsoft services and software licenses under one agreement.
Filed in US District Court, the suit claims CHS entered into numerous computer software licensing agreements over nearly two decades. The agreements,...
Agreement includes all Dignity Services and updates the patient centered medical home (PCMH) arrangement.
From the jointly released press release:
“Providing affordable quality care with compassion is what we stand for,” said Dignity Health Vice President of Managed Care Ethel Hoffman. “Being a part of BCBSAZ’s network...National News
According to recent research, Traditional Medicare beneficiaries are more likely admitted to higher quality SNFs than those served by low quality MA plans, which utilize SNFs reporting the poorest performance.
Ratings are still a useful resource when looking to invest or form partnerships, but the system has its weaknesses and...Arizona News
Arizona state legislators are still racing to the finish line, wrangling bills through the political process; physicians are getting closer to an improved credentialing timeline as Democrats and pro-choice advocates push back on a new abortion bill passed by the Senate and House.
The credentialing legislation, HB 2322, is designed...National News
Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West targeting dialysis providers.
600,000 voter signatures have been collected for a statewide ballot measure to cap dialysis clinics' commercial insurance reimbursement at 115% of care costs, much below their current rates.
The union argues the proposal would...Arizona News
The "whistle-blower" complaint was filed in 2016 by the company's billing manager, Jeffrey Scott.
The lawsuit states Scott began warning company officials of improper and fraudulent billing in 2011, but for years was ignored or berated for raising issues. The lawsuit alleges AZCCC engaged in double billing, charged for unnecessary...Arizona News
Effective immediately, Health Net will not be quoting any more new business for small and large business health plans.
Health Net stated in a letter to brokers:
We want you to know that Health Net will honor all current group contracts and continue to provide high quality service to our members. Employer groups and members will...Arizona News
A health care system where physicians will be available to talk to patients anytime they want and won’t charge you for every piece of health advice they offer.
Direct primary care patients pay a monthly fee and get access to primary-care physicians via text, phone and face-to-face visits.
Doctors may see fewer patients, spend...National News
Ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft may see big gains.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized polices for Medicare health and drug plans for 2019 that will save Medicare beneficiaries money on prescription drugs while offering additional plan choices.
In the press release, CMS Administrator Seema Verma...
A comprehensive review of accountable care organizations and value-based networks operating in Arizona; spotlight coverage on what's working and the challenges ahead for our state's MSSP ACOs, financial and quality performance data and a reveal of the relationships between health plans and value-based networks across the state.
ACO/VBN...
Gould most recently served as president of Banner's Arizona West Division.
As president and CEO of CTCA Phoenix, Gould will oversee all hospital administrative and clinical operations, as well as the CTCA outpatient care centers opening throughout the metro Phoenix area. A third being planned for later this year.
In a release Gould...
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