After almost a year of preparation, 450 healthcare organizations begin taking part in Medicare's Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative this month. The goal is to evaluate if paying for care by episodes really can improve quality and reduce Medicare's costs.

(Read More)

Many healthcare providers and payers are moving forward with patient-centered medical homes to improve primary care and care coordination and reduce costs, despite mixed research evidence of the cost-effectiveness of this major delivery system reform.

(Read More)

HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT debuted new formats for Notices of Privacy Practices (NPP) that providers can use to comply with the HIPAA mega rule starting Sept. 23.

(Read More)

An eagerly awaited report by HHS released Wednesday on health plan premiums and participation in the 36 states where the federal government is fully or partly running the new insurance exchanges shows that consumers in most of those states will have many plans to choose from and that premiums will be significantly lower than expected in 2014.

(Read More)

It's been a few years now since I worked in an office with other (fully grown) people, so when I read a recent Medscape article about dysfunctional medical practices, my initial reaction was to be grateful that I don't need to worry about office drama, and that nobody else here is tall enough to put fish in the microwave.

(Read More)

Changes to care delivery and payment models need to happen in order to improve a cancer care delivery system that is in crisis, found a new Institute of Medicine report.

(Read More)

Provider dealings with zone program integrity contractors (ZPICs) and Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) may be limited if CMS’ proposal comes to fruition.

(Read More)

Expect the decades-old debate about the dangers/benefits of physicians operating their own ancillary services to heat up again this year.

(Read More)

The Government Accountability Office has found that private contractors who identify fraudulent Medicare payments may be imposing an undue administrative burden on medical providers.Right now, four different kinds of contractors examine medical records and other documentation from providers to determine whether the claims meet Medicare requirements. But each type of contractor uses a different review process, which can be confusing for providers and possibly harm the efficiency and effectiveness of the reviews, the GAO found.
t

(Read More)

Federal charges were filed today against seven Northeast Ohio doctors accused of importing cancer medications that had not been approved by the Federal Drug Administration.

(Read More)

See a great patient checklist here...

(Read More)

Attachments

Cancer Insurance Checklist (PDF FILE)

Thanks for your hard work to date on fighting the sequestration cut to cancer care. Your collective efforts have been instrumental in helping generate much media attention and advocating Congress to act...

(Read More)

Attachments

House Health LAs (PDF FILE)

Find out who your Senate and House Legislative Aides are right here...

(Read More)

A bipartisan cancer research measure was adopted as an amendment to the Senate defense bill, paving the way for its passage after nearly six years of work

(Read More)

COA Past President Patrick Cobb and COA Executive Director Ted Okon have been on Capitol Hill with Dr. Mark Thompson talking about how to fix the drug shortages. In this article they talk about specific solutions to the crisis.

(Read More)

Cancer drug shortages are adversely impacting patient care. Dr. Frame comments on his experience and calls on Congress to fix the crisis.

(Read More)

COA President David Eagle, MD discusses the future of community oncology at recent conference.

(Read More)

As part of the proposed debt ceiling cuts to Medicare and Medicaid is a $3 billion ratcheting down of Medicare drug reimbursement from ASP + 6% to ASP + 4%. This would have obvious devastating consequences to community oncology practices and their patients, already facing a growing list of ca...

(Read More)

Synchronize those watches, pack those lunches and work on your dialing exercises. On Wednesday May 11, 2011, at: 12 noon Eastern Time 11:00 a.m. Central Time ...

(Read More)

When hospitals do business deals that are perceived as a cover for buying physician referrals or stifling competition, they may find themselves in an epic battle with whistleblowers, empowered by the False Claims Act and often partnered with the Department of Justice

(Read More)