​​​​Despite 2017’s cancellation of mandatory bundled payments, the value-based care movement in the United States is still healthy and will benefit in 2018 from analytics, according to a report from Washington, D.C.-based healthcare consulting firm Avalere.

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Electronic Health Records are essential tools for healthcare organizations. But they don't obviate the need for a Cardiovascular Information System (CVIS). In fact, changing payment models, new government mandates, and evolving care practices are making the CVIS more important than ever.

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Heart hospital across the country are preparing for the new mandatory bundled-payment program for cardiac care. Set to begin this July, the program makes hospitals in certain markets accountable for the quality and cost of care for bypass and heart attack patients until 90 days after discharge.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has been largely overshadowed by his choice of Rep. Tom Price for director of the Department of Health and Human Services. But for those reading the tea leaves about the future of healthcare, especially the Affordable Care Act, Verma’s selection is well worth examining.

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As the dust settles after the presidential election, it appears that Donald Trump is already softening some of his positions, especially his position on Obamacare. Media outlets have speculated that President Obama pushed hard for the continuance of his signature healthcare program when he met with Trump at the White House following the election.

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Last weekend was a busy one for those trying to parse the new MACRA rule released on Friday. At 2,202 pages, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act rule wasn't exactly beach reading, and it gave the health IT community plenty to talk about on social media and in policy statements.

The dust is still settling, but it appears that early reaction to the rule was mostly positive. Healthcare organizations praised the CMS for being responsive to concerns they had raised during the comment period leading up to the rule's finalization. In fact, about 80 percent of the 2,000+ pages are comments CMS received and its responses.
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Higher patient ratings equal fewer readmissions, lower mortality The scores patients assign their hospitals appear to correspond with the quality of the hospitals' patient outcomes, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers analyzed the scores patients assigned to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' star-rating system for more than 3,000 hospitals. Hospitals' star ratings were inversely proportional to their rates of death within a month of discharge. Hospitals reap $1.6M from specialists, including cardiologists While the average primary care physician is generating less income for hospitals ($1.4 million in 2016 versus $1.56 million in 2013), that’s offset by specialist doctors, whose contribution to hospital revenues jumped 14% to $1.6 million, compared with $1.42 million three years ago. Among specialists, orthopedic physicians bring in the most business ($2.75 million each), followed by invasive cardiologists ($2.45 million) and ... read more

CMS targets hospital readmissions after CABG A proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would penalize hospitals that perform an index coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and then have an unexpected 30-day readmission, even if the patient was discharged from a different hospital. "The proposed CABG 30-day readmission measure includes Medicare beneficiaries who are 65 years old or older who at the time of the index admission had been enrolled in a Medicare fee-for-service program for at least 12 months," Cardiovascular Business reports. "CMS intends to add CABG to its readmissions reduction program in 2017." Most support keeping, building on Obamacare The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) continues to have public support, with 36 percent of those surveyed saying it should be expanded, according to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. That's the position advocated by presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nearly... read more

CMS and health insurers announce alignment and simplification of quality measures The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and America's Health Insurance Plans (the health plans' trade group) announced that they have agreed on seven sets of clinical quality measures. The standardized measures are designed to help payers and consumers shopping for high-quality care. "These measures support multi-payer alignment, for the first time, on core measures primarily for physician quality programs," according to the CMS. This work is informing the CMS’s implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). Supreme Court: What will happen to healthcare cases after Justice Scalia's death? A number of healthcare-related cases are in limbo following the death of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 12. "The court is weighing a case about data sharing with potential implications for insurers and state... read more

Did you have a chance to check out the latest healthcare IT news stories around the Web? We’ve captured the top industry news stories from this week that you won’t want to miss. An Ideal Transition: Multi-Campus Rollout of Echo CVIS at Orlando Health Read the latest case study from Diagnostic & Interventional Cardiology to learn how Orlando Health has successfully implemented LUMEDX's physician structured reporting and image management solution across five of its campuses. Read how the hospitals use standardized reports for echo in order to improve efficiency and streamline workflow. Million Hearts Model Rewards Physicians for Prevention According to Medscape, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) recently announced a 5-year, randomized controlled trial to test the idea of paying physicians for reducing the long-term cardiovascular risk of their high-risk patients. CMMI will enroll 720 practices in the clinical trial between June and September, and ... read more