News From Around the Web
> Symptoms targeted for online tracking by care partners of people with dementia can be used to stage dementia, according to research published this week in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. For the study, the authors' objective was to use clinical data where the dementia stage is known to develop a model that classifies an individual's stage of dementia based on their symptom profile, and to apply that model to classify dementia stages for subjects from an online dataset. Study
Provider News
> Even if October 1, 2014, still seems a long way off, the time to prepare your practice to transition to ICD-10 coding is now--especially when it comes to training, which will entail significant time, expense and effort. Failure to do so, however, could cost your practice more in the long run due to denied claims and inaccurate payments, according to an article in FiercePracticeManagement. Article
> A new report by the Health Care Incentives Improvements Institute (HCI3) challenges previous ideas on how to improve the quality and affordability of healthcare in the nation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced. While previous analysis has supported stronger Medicare and Medicaid incentives for providers and increasingly stronger sticks to discourage nonparticipation, the HCI3 report claims that carrot-and-stick systems of reward and punishment are ineffective. Article
Health Insurance News
> With only two months left before health insurance exchanges officially open for enrollment, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services unveiled on Monday the latest step it's taking to prepare. Its website, Healthcare.gov, now allows consumers living in the 34 states with a federally-run exchange to start the enrollment process by opening a personal account with simple information, including state of residence, age and whether they can obtain health coverage through their employer. Article
And Finally... A regular Casanova. Article