News From Around the Web:
> UnitedHealth is planning on hiring about 600 new employees, mostly workers to handle member calls and claims, throughout North Carolina. That would give UnitedHealth about 4,800 employees in the state, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. Article
> Democratic legislators have introduced a bill that would make insurers subject to federal antitrust laws., reported The Hill's Healthwatch. The bill, introduced by Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., could help prevent insurers from colluding to drive up prices, limit competition and conspire to underpay doctors and hospitals. Article
Health Provider News
> The National Committee for Quality Assurance has named six organizations as accountable care organizations: HealthPartners in Minnesota, Billings (Mont.) Clinic, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Essentia Health in Minnesota, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic in Houston, and Crystal Run Healthcare in New York. Article
> Eighty-six percent of patients said a hospital's mortality rate for a given procedure would strongly affect their decision to receive treatment at that facility, according to a new analysis. Article
Health IT News
> The American Health Information Management Association has identified three clinical documentation and record management challenges in electronic health record systems. Article
> The Obama administration wants to launch a long-term examination of the human brain and build a map of its activity. Article
And Finally… Raise your glass and say cheers ... to cancer? Article