Editor's Note A study by Adventist University of Health Sciences (Orlando, Florida) found that 92% of nurses were dissatisfied with their electronic health record (EHR) technology. In addition, 85% said the EHRs had flaws, and 84% said EHRs disrupted their productivity and clinical workflow. The researchers also found an increase…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on September 8 announced that it will give physicians and other clinicians more options in the first year to comply with the new Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) quality payment program.  During 2017, providers will be able to…

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Editor's Note Hospitals that care for the oldest, sickest, and most complicated patients could suffer financially under Medicare’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundled payment program, this study finds. The study analyzed data from more than 23,000 Michigan patients who had hip or knee replacements at 60 hospitals in a…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that starting October 1, 2016, hospitals that are still not meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs) will be subjected to a reduced increase in their Inpatient Prospective Payment System rate, the September 2 Healthcare IT News reports.…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers found that physicians spent 49.2% of their time during the day on electronic health records and desk work and 27% of their time with patients. In addition, they spent an extra 1 to 2 hours each night during their personal time on EHRs. While…

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Government and third-party payers are pushing for value-based, rather than volume-based, models of care, yet few hospitals are moving that direction, a survey shows. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires that half of hospitals’ payments be value based by 2018, according to a 2016 Health Catalyst survey…

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The shift toward value-based payment has gained some momentum with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) July 25 announcement of a proposed cardiac bundled payment model. Under the proposal, 98 randomly selected metropolitan areas would become accountable for the cost and quality of care related to coronary artery…

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Editor's Note Analyzing data on nearly 4,500 acute-care facilities, Johns Hopkins researchers found that the hospitals with the highest rates of readmissions were more likely to show better mortality scores. Data on mortality and hospital readmissions used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sometime fail to tell…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 2 released its inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) final rule for FY 2017. In the rule, CMS kept a controversial 1.5% cut to hospital reimbursement, which aims to collect $11 billion in overpayments, the August 2 Modern Healthcare…

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Editor's Note A survey by Loftware, Inc (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), shows that only 15% of medical device companies are currently compliant with the next phase of the Food and Drug Administration's Unique Device Identification (UDI) regulation, the August 3 PRWEB reports. The deadline is September 24. Of 120 companies polled,…

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