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Much the way consumer analytics fundamentally improved how products and services are sold, healthcare analytics will one day change the way providers deliver care. But Sriram Vishwanath contends that a lot has to happen before that day comes.

The previously recommended amount was merely a guideline for providers that prefer not to calculate actual costs, the Office for Civil Rights clarified. 

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee has passed the "Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act," a bill that, among other things, aims to provide financial relief to hospitals that were in the process of building off-campus outpatient centers in 2015 when reimbursement policy changed. Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, and Ranking Member Jim McDermott, D-Washington, introduced the bipartisan legislation last week. It has received support from the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals and the Association of American Medical Colleges. One of the bill's main features is turning back the clock - for some facilities - on a policy of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 that lowered the rate at which Medicare reimbursed off-campus doctors' offices owned by hospitals. Prior to the budget act, clinics off-campus were reimbursed at the same rate as hospitals. The reasoning was that hospitals incurred higher expenses. Also, supporters believed the budget act policy would reduce hospitals' incentive to acquire physician offices. The ACA and other hospital groups criticized the policy, saying it would block access to healthcare for patients who used off-campus, outpatient clinics. The Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act, or H.R. 5273, pays off-campus hospital outpatient departments the higher Medicare Hospital Outpatient Department rate for those facilities that were in the process of mid-build from Nov. 2, 2015 to Dec. 31,2016, or 60 days after enactment of the budget act, whichever is later. Newer facilities are capped at the lower physician fee schedule rate. "For those select HOPDs that would qualify, this legislation is a significant relief, and we are supportive of the legislation on their behalf," said American Hospital Association Executive Vice President Tom Nickels. "AHA also supports provisions in the bill that would adjust the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program to account for socioeconomic status, and extend the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program for five years." The legislation also gives improved consideration of socioeconomic status in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, that levies fines over excessive readmissions. It also delays CMS's authority to terminate contracts for Medicare Advantage plans failing to achieve minimum quality ratings as it conducts research and reports on socioeconomic status and quality ratings. Finally, the bill allows hospitals providing cancer care to continue to be paid at cancer hospital rates at new off-campus locations; extends a program dealing with the reimbursement of small rural hospitals for five more years; and exempts physicians who treat patients in ambulatory service centers from the Electronic Health Records Incentive Program and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said  the bill, "provides some necessary regulatory relief to providers and makes it easier for beneficiaries to enroll in Medicare." Twitter: @SusanJMorse Follow Healthcare Finance on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Part of the Helping Hospitals Improve patient Care Act, the amendment also exempts ambulatory surgical centers from MIPS through 2017 and 2018.

The network will modernize facilities to embrace a new model of care that is more efficient and strengthen its focus on population health and integrating research about genomics and digital medicine for personalized treatments.

The data science company said it will use the investment money to develop applications for care and quality measurement. 

The new initiative will focus on gleaning insights into the care and treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The chief information officer and CHIME board chair testified that it is vital for Health and Human Services to institute a coordinated plan for protecting data and systems against cyberattacks.  

The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign proposal would make uninsured Americans eligible for Medicare at age 50 or 55. Whether that will be financially advantageous is a matter of some debate. 

Struggling with long wait times, the Veterans Affairs Health Care System is trying something new: a partnership with the CVS Pharmacy chain to offer urgent care services to more than 65,000 veterans. The experiment begins today at the VA’s operations in Palo Alto, California. Veterans can visit 14 “MinuteClinics” operated by CVS in the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento, where staff will treat them for conditions such as respiratory infections, order lab tests and prescribe medications, which can be filled at CVS pharmacies. The care will be free for veterans, and the VA will reimburse CVS for the treatment and medications. Whether the partnership will spread to other VA locales isn’t yet clear. The collaboration comes amid renewed scrutiny of the nation’s troubled VA health system, which has tried without much success to improve long wait times for veterans needing health care. Despite a $10 billion “Veterans Choice” program allowing veterans to receive care outside the closed VA system, vets nationwide wait for an appointment even longer than they did before the program started in 2014, according to a federal audit. The MinuteClinic partnership is not part of the Veterans Choice program. “The concern has always been, how do we make sure veterans get the care they need in a timely way and in a way that works for the veteran?” said Dr. Stephen Ezeji-Okoye, the Palo Alto VA’s deputy chief of staff. The deal indicates that the VA is willing to try outside partnerships to meet veterans’ needs, he said. “We want to have not just timely access but geographic access to care.” Sarah Russell, the Palo Alto VA’s chief medical informatics officer, came up with the idea, said Ezeji-Okoye. The VA will integrate MinuteClinics’ patient records with its own electronic health records to provide consistency of care, Ezeji-Okoye said. The Palo Alto VA fares better than some other facilities nationwide in providing timely care to veterans, according to VA data, and Ezeji-Okoye said most patients with urgent care needs are seen quickly. But the system was so busy in the past year that about 11 percent of appointments at its network of hospitals and clinics — which stretch south from Sonora to Monterey — could not be scheduled within 30 or fewer days, which is considered an acceptable timeframe,VA data show. That includes appointments that would require urgent care. More than 5,000 appointments system-wide were scheduled more than 30 days out, but each hospital and clinic’s performance varied widely. At a Fremont clinic, less than 2 percent of appointment requests could not be scheduled within 30 days. At the VA’s rural Modesto clinic, by contrast, more than 17 percent of requests were not be scheduled within 30 days. Once the MinuteClinic operation is well underway, Ezeji-Okoye anticipates that between 10 and 15 veterans — from among the estimated 150 who call the Palo Alto VA’s advice nurse hotline daily — will be treated at the retail clinics on any given day. About 95,000 veterans are eligible to use the Palo Alto system, one of the VA’s largest in the Western United States. About 65,000 use it every year. The $330,000 pilot project will be evaluated after one year. CVS’ MinuteClinic president, Dr. Andrew Sussman, hopes it can be rolled out nationally if it succeeds. CVS is by far the biggest player in retail pharmacy clinics, operating 1,135 of them in 35 states. “We’d love to have that opportunity to expand after we go through this phase,” Sussman said. “We’re well suited to help because of our large footprint and ability to see people on a quick basis.” It is unclear, however, what the VA’s nationwide plans are. The Veterans Health Administration office did not respond to Kaiser Health News’ request for comment. Blake Schindler, a retired Army major who lives in Santa Clara near one of the participating MinuteClinics, was intrigued, but cautious about the MinuteClinics. He counts himself lucky because unlike some other veterans, he has access to the U.S. military’s TRICARE health insurance program for active and some retired service members. “It could make a big difference, but how much access are the veterans going to have? That was the big problem with the Veterans Choice program; it didn’t end up the way it was supposed to,” said Schindler, 58. “I’m always hopeful when I hear about these things; I keep an open mind until I have experience with it,” he added. This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation. Twitter: @HealthITNews Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn