- Some Hospital Systems Pioneer Transparent Pricing, But Industrywide Progress Is Slow Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer - There are a small but growing number of health systems around the country that are thinking “more like retailers” and establishing clear pricing strategies to compete for consumers who face rising out-of-pocket costs under high-deductible health plans, according to a new report from the PwC Health Research Institute.
- CMS Funnels $140 Million More Into Medicare Primary-Care Payments Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson - CMS Wednesday announced changes to how Medicare pays for primary care that could result in an estimated $140 million in additional funding in 2017 to providers. The agency says several coding and payment changes could eventually lead to as much as $4 billion or more being funneled into care coordination and patient-centered care.
- Fewer Hospitals Earn Medicare Bonuses Under Value-Based Purchasing Modern Healthcare by Elizabeth Whitman - More than 1,600 hospitals will see bonuses from Medicare in 2017 under the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program, according to federal data released Tuesday. The number earning positive pay adjustments is about 200 fewer than last year.
- Telemedicine Is Becoming More Widespread Baltimore Sun by Andrea K. McDaniels - Last year, more than 15 million Americans received some kind of virtual medical care, according to the American Telemedicine Association. The trade group expects the number to jump by 30 percent this year.
- Nurses Are Again In Demand Wall Street Journal by Melanie Evans - After years of relative equilibrium, the job market for nurses is heating up in many markets, driving up wages and sign-on bonuses for the nation’s fifth-largest occupation. The last nursing shortage more than a decade ago ended when a surge of nursing grad.
- Feds Approve Y's Diabetes Program Despite Drug Maker Opposition USA Today by Jayne O'Donnell - Federal regulators will move ahead with a national test of Medicare coverage for a YMCA diabetes prevention program over the objections of the pharmaceutical industry, which sells drugs including increasingly expensive insulin to treat disease.