Log In

4 articles were found on your search of:
Topic: Medicare regulations

AAFP Report Explains Medicare E-Prescribing Incentive Program Requirements
As part of the health care reform legislation, physician practices are required to adopt electronic prescribing (e-Rx) systems for submitting prescriptions to pharmacies. Under a Medicare-sponsored incentive program, practices that cannot demonstrate that they have performed a certain amount of e-Rx during 2011 will be ineligible to receive a 1% Medicare incentive payment in the year 2012. Practices that cannot demonstrate a lesser amount of e-Rx during the first six months of 2011 (January 1 through June 30) will incur a 1% penalty on Medicare payments during 2012.

CPOE Associated With Decrease in Mortality, Researchers Report
Researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a significant decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates can be associated with implementing a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system. The system installed at Packard Children’s in 2007 correlated with a 20% decrease in mortality rates over 18 months, according to a study published online in Pediatrics on May 3. Researchers noted that other initiatives at the hospital may also have contributed to the drop in deaths.

In Health Care, One Size May Not Fit All
Discussions about whether the federal government should enact health care reform have revolved around the issues of cost control and providing care for the uninsured. Both of these goals are laudable but skepticism about whether any reform plan can accomplish these goals is widespread. Many opponents ask whether it’s possible to provide coverage to the estimated 45 million Americans who are uninsured and control costs at the same time. It’s a good question.

Book Tells How to Navigate the Maze
The health system is needlessly complex. In many ways, this system, which critics insist on calling a “non-system,” is the worst of all possible worlds. It’s a bewildering mix of arcane rules, Byzantine red tape, and obstructive legal entanglements. For patients, it involves long hours of waiting and uncertainty. This new book is a result of lessons learned over the years. The book, Navigating the Maze of Health Coverage and Access: A Quick Guide for Physicians, contains 20 quick takes on health reform. It is for doctors and patients. I present it as questions and answers on leading reform issues of today. This manual is not intended to be exhaustive or inclusive, but rather to be instructive. The health system is complex. This book is simple. It follows the simple instructions to write about the what, why, when, how, where, and who. The issue of universal coverage is one of the examples of complexity in the book.