Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its long-awaited final rules for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Generally speaking, an ACO is a network of health care provider

Senators Charles Grassley and Herb Kohl are two of the legislative champions of the Physicians Payment Sunshine Act, which was included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last year. They recently sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Servic

As the Institute of Medicine (IOM) unveiled its report on Essential Health Benefits (EHB) on Friday, there were few surprises.  The panel delivered a high level outline for selecting benefits with a strong recommendation that cost consciousness be its gui

In the United States, childhood obesity is an epidemic. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 17 percent of children between ages 2 to 19 are obese. CDC data also show that since 1980 the prevalence of obesity among

Oral health advocates are trained to reinforce that oral health is essential to overall health. The good news is that a poll released today by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (conducted by Lake Research) found that 79 percent of survey respondents say that

Last month, we blogged about the start of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) rate review rules that oblige insurers asking for premium increases of 10 percent or more (for plans in the individual and small group markets) to publicly disclose and justify such

Federal or state Exchange? The question of who should run the marketplace for individuals and small businesses to shop for and buy affordable, high quality insurance has been an ongoing debate in health reform circles for a number of years. And a main dec

All across the country, health officials are boasting about new federal grants, awarded yesterday, that will help them save money by improving the health of Americans. More than $100 million in Community Transformation Grants went to projects in 36 state

Monday passed quietly with no sound of shuffling paper from the Department of Justice (DOJ) as they opted not to file a request for full review by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 11th Circuit decision is the darling of the media due to its large 26