Dr. Vindell Washington, the head on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT from August 2016 to January 2017, is the latest to jump on board at Alphabet's Verily, according to tweets from fellow ONC vet-turned-Googler Dr. Karen DeSalvo, as well as from Verily’s communications lead. He comes directly from a position as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana’s chief medical officer....
Last week, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma revealed — in a Wall Street Journal editorial and an informal request for information (RFI) — that CMS would be heading in a “new direction” with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).
Primarily, Verma’s CMS seems interested in dropping the mandatory adoption of new payment methods in favor of a...
While behavioral health and physical health have historically been thought of (and treated) as completely separate areas of care, the simple fact is there just aren’t as many healthcare professionals who specialize in the mind as there are who treat the body.
But nearly 70 percent of American adults who have a behavioral health condition also have a medical co-morbidity, which led the Bronx, New...
On Tuesday, Representative Tom Price, President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, faced his second confirmation hearing, this time before the Senate Finance Committee (previously he had gone before the Health committee). In between questions about Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, his questionable investments, and his relationship with President Trump, Price fielded some...
Nineteen states intend to invest more in telehealth this year as they roll out innovative health care delivery services for their Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP populations. Twenty-five states have created "innovation plans" backed by grants from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CCMI). This week Accenture published a report that analyzes the investment priorities of these 25 State...
Earlier this week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule that will lead to changes in coverage under Medicare Part B. The rule, proposed in July, will expand the range of telehealth services that can be reimbursed under Medicare starting in 2015.
In July, MobiHealthNews noted in the new rule, CMS added seven new telehealth reimbursement codes, all category...
(Left to Right) Mark Wynn, William Shrank, and CMMI Innovation Award winners Kevin Volpp, Deborah Stewart, and David Goodman
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini's opening keynote set the tone for an mHealth Summit with a notable, but not unexpected, payer presence. In 2010 MobiHealthNews wrote about the changing role of the payer in health care, predicting that payers would soon help drive the mobile...
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act certainly was stunning. Who really expected Chief Justice John Roberts to side with the liberal wing of the court? How many people thought that the reasoning would be that the individual mandate was a legal exercise of Congress' power to levy taxes?
Similarly, the decision was polarizing. Plenty of...
