Joseph Goedert

States and territories seeking to establish a health insurance exchange, funded under the Affordable Care Act, will be required to submit an application for approval during the fall of 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced.

The Department of Health and Human Services has extended public comment on two proposed rules published on July 15 to establish state insurance exchanges and implement standards related to reinsurance and risk adjustment.

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a total of $109 million in grants to 28 states and the District of Columbia to increase resources for conducting health insurance premium rate reviews.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have received funds from the Health and Human Services Department totaling $185 million to build state insurance exchanges to aid consumers and small businesses in comparative shopping for health care coverage.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have received funds from the Department of Health and Human Services totaling $185 million to build state insurance exchanges to aid consumers and small businesses in comparative shopping for health care coverage.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is nearly ready to issue a proposed rule requiring health insurers to develop standardized, consumer-friendly summaries of benefits and coverage under their health plan packages.

Health insurer Aetna will double the size of its business of administering consumer health care accounts with a $202 million acquisition of PayFlex Holdings, which does business as PayFlex Systems.

State insurance exchanges -- mandated to start operating in 2014 to offer one-stop health insurance shopping for individuals and small businesses --could sell up to $60 billion in policies during their first year and nearly $200 billion by 2019, according to estimates from consultancy/research firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A new report examines how states can create health insurance exchanges, mandated under the Affordable Care Act, to provide Web-based one-stop shopping to individuals and small businesses to compare health benefit plans and purchase coverage. The Center for American Progress, a Washington-based nonpartisan research and educational institute; and the Small Business Majority, a not-for-profit research and advocacy firm, developed the report. It lays out basic principals to consider when creating an exchange, five important decisions that…

Several major commercial insurers are paying claims faster, but their claims processing error rates are increasing, according to an annual report of insurer performance.

Thomson Reuters, a major vendor of business intelligence services and technology spanning multiple industries, intends to divest its health care operations.

The Department of Health and Human Services has sent to the Office of Management and Budget an interim final rule to adopt operating rules for the HIPAA electronic eligibility verification/benefit determination and claims status transactions.

The Department of Health and Human Services has sent to the Office of Management and Budget an interim final rule to adopt operating rules for the HIPAA electronic eligibility verification/benefit determination and claims status transactions.

Health care is a highly regulated industry, but medical imaging isn't as regulated as one might expect. Most of the regulations center around breast imaging, which was recognized nearly two decades ago as an area that needed to be standardized and regulated at the federal level.

Electronic prescriptions among U.S. office-based prescribers increased 71% to 326 million in 2010, compared with 190 million the previous year, according to an annual progress report from e-prescribing network vendor Surescripts.

A coalition of 27 health, aging, labor and consumer organizations has released a report, the "Consumer Platform for Health IT," which they call a vision for a patient-centered health care system.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will develop the Health Insurance Assistance Database, a new system of records, as part of a program to oversee states' development and operation of health insurance exchanges.

The Leapfrog Group, an employer coalition advocating increased health care quality and safety, joined many other organizations in applauding the Obama administration's new $1 billion Partnership for Patients safety program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will pump up to $1 billion, funded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, into a new program to dramatically increase patient safety within two years.

A large online survey of medical practices, with nearly 4,600 responses, finds no consensus that electronic health records systems increase physician productivity.