-
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued some technical corrections to its interim final rule on Medicares list of procedures approved to be performed in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).
-
An initiative that assigns ownership of HEDIS®* measures to various staff members has resulted in improved HEDIS scores and national acclaim for Keystone Health Plan Central, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital BlueCross, independent licensees of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
-
An estranged husband comes into the house while the home health nurse is teaching the patients mother how to do enteral therapy as he begins physically abusing the mother, he looks at the nurse and says, Youre next.
-
As increasing numbers of older Americans spend their last days in a nursing home, its important for nursing home staff, as well as hospice providers, to identify nursing home patients who might qualify for a hospice placement, an end-of-life care expert says.
-
One in three (33%) U.S. adults who have been prescribed drugs to take on a regular basis reported that they often or very often are noncompliant with the treatment regimen, according to a recent Harris Interactive on-line survey.
-
When Blue Shield of California conducted a pilot project paying physicians for Internet-based consultations for nonurgent conditions, the San Francisco-based health plan found the initiative reduced office visit claims by $1.92 per member per month and total health care costs by $3.69 per member per month.
-
Prices in the commercial insurance industry, which declined steadily in 2004 in the first yearlong soft market since 1998, may be showing signs of a rebound, according to a new survey.
-
A survey of patients who had suffered strokes found that most would be willing to participate in emergency research for stroke treatments, and if incapacitated, would accept surrogate decisions about enrollment by family members or even their doctors.
-
Clinical trials that show a treatment effect early on face a dilemma. If the effect is real, one ethical argument goes, then it is imperative to give all involved access to the drug as quickly as possible, starting with the placebo group.
-
Is it ethical to enroll an elderly person with Alzheimers disease in a new research study, even if he or she doesnt really understand what it entails? What if the research has real risks, is unlikely to benefit the patient, but could lead to advances that will help future patients with Alzheimers?
