- Swiss right-to-die group gets green light for new suicide room (newsdaily.com)
A Swiss organization that helps terminally ill people take their own lives and defends their right to refuse medical treatment ...local authorities had allowed it to open another room for assisted suicides.
- ICD-10: CMS won’t deny claims for first year (healthcareitnews.com)
In a surprise concession the American Medical Association...revealed that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will take four steps designed to ease the transition to ICD-10.
- A Pharma Payment a Day Keeps Docs’ Finances OK (medpagetoday.com)
..doctors receive big money from the pharmaceutical industry is no surprise. The new data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that such interactions are widespread, with not only doctors, but thousands of dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors....
- Medicaid Violations Hinder Hepatitis C Drug Access (pharmacytimes.com)
Many states implement unlawful and life-threatening restrictions on Medicaid coverage for the hepatitis C virus drug, sofosbuvir…limited treatment to HCV patients with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis… treating earlier to prevent these liver-related complications seems counterintuitive…
- How to save the meaningful use program (healthcareitnews.com)
Imposing (electronic health records) on the medical community and forcing them to adopt and use this technology was destined to fail…. meaningful use considers electronic health records as the only type of IT solution and ignores the fact that there are many other IT services that can help medical providers much more.
- The 5 Cardinal Health programs that helped it earn DoD’s Freedom Award (drugstorenews.com)
Cardinal Health earned the award (2015 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award ) for -
- Veterans Leadership and Career Development Program
- Veterans Professional Advancement Course
- Veterans & Military Advocates Employee Resource Group
- Veterans SharePoint site
- Support the Troops Care Package Event
-$1.6 million for the Wounded Warriors Project
- "Welcome Home" events
- Code Blue at Tahoe Pacific Hospital (rgj.com)
State investigation, internal documents and former employees bring to light concerns about shortcomings at Tahoe Pacific Hospital.
-Medical missteps
-Equipment failures
-Untrained staff
-'I ring and ring and ring'
-Not enough nurses
- Nursing homes get help with HIE (healthcareitnews.com)
nursing homes have traditionally been one of the weakest links when it comes to health information exchange and care coordination,… new project to help improve those facilities' electronic communication…With.. a $14.8 million CMS grant to reduce avoidable re-hospitalizations among nursing home residents with hospitals.
- Federal tool details financial links between doctors, medical industry (reviewjournal.com)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments report,…to detail the financial relationships between health care companies and doctors and hospitals…Nationwide,.. doctors and research hospitals collected nearly $6.5 billion…
■ Dr. Michael Reis…$2.5 million (Carson City)
■ Dr. Fadi Braiteh…$500,000 (Las Vegas)
■ Dr. James Del Rosso…$405,000 (Las Vegas)
■ Drs. Troy Watson…$300,000 (Las Vegas)
- Nevada state hospital inspection agency critically understaffed (rgj.com)
Nevada agency (Nevada Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance) in charge of making sure hospitals and other health care facilities are following regulations and keeping patients safe is overwhelmed with an "enormous workload" and can't hire enough inspectors to keep up with demand...