News From Around the Web
> The Leapfrog Group recently introduced software to help patients see how much they spend unnecessarily due to hospital medical errors, along with a Hidden Surcharge Calculator, Health Data Management reported. The organization estimates that a patient admitted to a hospital with a safety grade of "C" or lower generates $7,780 in hidden surcharges because of errors. Article
> MedCity News raises the question of whether Brazil is an emerging health IT market in a recent article. In the last decade, according to the article, the nation secured $350 million in funding from the Inter-American Development Bank to overhaul a struggling $23 billion public health system. What's more, InterSystems Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., implemented its electronic health record solution--patented as InterSystems TrakCare--in the capital of Brazil. Article
Provider News
> What's in a name? Well, there could be clinical benefits if physicians stop referring to small abnormalities with little chance of developing into life-threatening cancers as "cancer" or "carcinoma," according to a study group convened by the National Cancer Center. In a viewpoint published online this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the group says improved screening has significantly increased detection of early stage disease without a producing a parallel decrease in late-stage disease, especially in breast, lung, prostate and thyroid cancer. Article
> As hospitals and federal health offices struggle with how to determine inpatient versus observation status, a new report from the Office of Inspector General questions whether proposed changes to how hospitals bill for observation stays will actually work. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and congress have raised concerns about observation and short inpatient stays. While CMS policy considers observation services needed for 24 hours or less, observation care stays typically exceed the 24-hour limit. Article
Health Finance News
> Although the bulk of the Affordable Care Act is being implemented starting early next year, the amount of money states will use to trumpet its arrival is far from equal. Some states are receiving--and spending--tens of millions of dollars to advertise health insurance exchanges and other options its residents have under the ACA. Others are spending far less. Article
> California's hospitals were among the first in the nation to levy a tax upon themselves in order to leverage more payments from the Medicaid program. Now, the acute care providers in the Golden State are scrambling to preserve those extra payments. The California Hospital Association has floated a ballot initiative that would prohibit state regulators from imposing the tax levy unless the Medicaid dollars flow directly to the hospitals. Article
And Finally... All math may as well be zombie math to me. Article