News From Around the Web
> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has posted an update to the 2014 eligible professional clinical quality measures (CQMs). Use of the update is not required. However, CMS "strongly encourages" use of the updated CQMs since they include new codes, logic corrections and clarifications. Website
> Of the 11 medical schools to be awarded education innovation grants from the American Medical Association, two--New York University and Indiana University--are using the funds to create "virtual EHRs" to help students master the systems, American Medical News reported. The projects will use de-identified data. One-hundred nineteen medical schools had vied for the $1 million grants. Article
Health Finance News
> Hospital inpatient admission rates are down sharply this year at facilities across the country, raising some alarm with a prominent analyst at Moody's Investors Service. "The numbers are eye-opening," said Moody's Associate Managing Director Lisa Goldstein, who presented on Monday at the Healthcare Financial Management Association annual conference in Orlando, Fla. According to Goldstein, inpatient admissions dropped by as much as 7 percent in Chicago, and as much as 10 percent in New Jersey, predominantly in the northern part of the state that serves as a de facto suburb of New York City. Article
Provider News
> When all is said and done after copays, deductibles and coinsurance, patients pay out of their pockets an average 23.6 percent of the amount that health insurers set for paying physicians, according to the American Medical Association's sixth annual National Health Insurer Report Card. "Physicians want to provide patients with their individual out-of-pocket costs, but must work through a maze of complex insurer rules to find useful information," AMA Board Member Barbara L. McAneny, M.D., said. "The AMA is calling on insurers to provide physicians with better tools that can automatically determine a patient's payment responsibility prior to treatment." Article
> During a time when many physician practices are struggling to stay in the black, it may seem counterintuitive to hire additional staff. But adding a patient navigator or care coordinator to your team may yield a substantial return on investment through reduced no-show appointments and better patient compliance, according to an article from Medical Economics. Article
And Finally... I think I'll stick to Starbucks, thank you. Article