CMS releases new ICD-10 checklists, timelines to help providers; Computer hardware stolen from Walgreens healthcare company;

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> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released new checklists and timelines to help provider practices, small hospitals and payers prepare for the shift to ICD-10. The checklists are comprised of lists of tasks recommended by CMS for completion prior to Oct. 1, 2014, while the timelines give providers visual perspectives regarding where their transitions should be at any given time. Website

> Anaheim, Calif.-based Crescent Healthcare last Thursday notified an undetermined number of patients that computer hardware and other paper records containing personal health information and Social Security numbers were stolen from its billing center on Dec. 28, 2012, Healthcare IT News reports. Paul Mastrapa, president of Crescent--a Walgreens healthcare company--said in the letter that the company notified authorities three days after the incident, and added that it will retrain employees and service providers on security policies and procedures. Article

Provider News

> Board members at two California hospitals recently defended paying their top executives annual salaries of roughly $800,000 each. A state database identified the top-earning public official in the state as Nancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Township Health Care District in Fremont, Calif. A bonus of $162,783 pushes her total annual compensation for 2012-13 to $813,914, the Silicon Valley Mercury-News reported. That's less than the $936,349 she made in 2011, according to a State Controller's Office survey cited by the paper. The salary comparison is unfair, board member Bernard Stewart told the paper. Article

> If Congress doesn't work together prevent the upcoming sequestration, patient care and medical research will be severely jeopardized, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), along with more than 40 specialty physician groups, warn in a new report. The group outlines several areas where it contends sequestration would undermine health care and the Health Resources and Services Administration's efforts to improve the "supply, diversity and distribution of the healthcare workforce" in fiscal 2013. Article

Health Finance News

> Fitch Ratings warns the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the merger of two Georgia hospitals could negatively affect the finances of investor-owned healthcare organizations. "[S]tricter anti-trust action is a negative for investor owned hospitals as these companies have recently been offsetting weak organic growth through hospital acquisitions," the rating agency said Thursday in a brief report. Article

And Finally... It's the thought that counts. Article