News from Around the Web
> The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have created a new online Bonnie user forum. Bonnie is a tool for testing electronic clinical quality measures. The Forum is intended to bring together a community of Bonnie users and to allow the Bonnie development team to reach out to the community. The community is being created through Google Groups. Website
> ONC also has released a new Quick Stat on provider performance regarding the 2014 Meaningful Use measures of exchange, consisting of the view/download/transmit requirement and electronic transmission of summaries of care. The Quick Stat also lists the percentage of providers that took an exclusion regarding the measures. These measures were new and specific to Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program only. Website
> Florida's health information exchange is having trouble succeeding, according to a recent HIEWatch article. The HIE, which offers patient lookup, event notification services and Direct messaging, lacks buy-in from providers and others. Some of reasons for the low interest may include lack of knowledge about the HIE, budget issues and the user fees imposed. Article
Health Finance News
> The Obama administration has signed off on the use of Medicaid funds to house enrollees, possibly creating a path that would not only bring down the homeless population but also cut down on hospital costs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved the use of money typically used for clinical services for housing and housing-assistance services last June. Article
Health Insurance News
> After examining the expenditures on the five highest-cost Medicare Part B drugs, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that high costs were concentrated among a small number of drugs and conditions. In the report, GAO found that new drugs paid for by Part B were more likely to be biologic, be approved to treat a narrower range of conditions, and to have used a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) program to expedite their development and review. Article
> The healthcare payer IT outsourcing market is expected to grow more than 40 percent in the next two years, according to a new Black Book survey. That's because better software solutions have accelerated expenses faster than originally anticipated, and there has not been any corresponding increase in revenue for many health plans. Article
And Finally... Let me know which mall he'll show up at next! Article