News From Around the Web
> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid's new initiative to improve care for nursing facility residents, announced Aug. 27, relies on the use of electronic health records and data sharing. The new funding opportunity to launch phase two of this initiative, which is aimed at reducing hospital readmissions, is looking for the use, if possible of an interoperable electronic person centered care plan and electronic documentation of steps, such as discussions with family members in the long term care facility's EHR and exchanged electronically among the interdisciplinary care team. Application information (.pdf)
> Grant funds have enabled New Orleans to implement EHRs, electronic clinical decision support and other innovations to revitalize the city's public health system, which was destroyed after Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago. There now is a network of more than 70 community based centers in the city, according to USA Today. The funding came from both the federal government and private channels. Article
Health Finance News
> For the first time in years, Moody's Investors Service has changed its long-range forecast from negative to stable. It had hinted earlier this summer that it was leaning toward making that change. Moody's has issued a negative forecast for the non-profit/public hospital sector since 2008, when the Great Recession began to take hold. The ratings agency noted that cash flow for many hospitals in that sector had increased, helping to improve their outlook. Article
Health Insurance News
> A change to pharmaceutical patent law procedures could end up costing federal healthcare programs $1.3 billion over a decade. The reason for the cost burden is because the new procedure--requested by pharmaceutical trade groups--could potentially delay new generic medicines, according to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office. The trade groups want Congress to exempt drug patents from being challenged through a process known as Inter Partes Review that is both cheaper and faster than federal courts. Article
> Only 4.4 percent of Americans say they skipped necessary medical care due to cost-related issues in the past year, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. For both men and women younger than 18, 1.2 percent failed to obtain medical care because of financial reasons; 6.1 percent of those ages 18 to 64 went without care; and 2.4 percent of those older than 65 did not receive proper care due to cost concerns. Article
And Finally... And Uber only just added lunch delivery to its services! Article