Quality issues are still the number one reason for drug shortages, and in an effort to address this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is debuting a quality management maturity (QMM) program intended to incentivize drugmakers to invest in quality measures. The program will be run by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced two initiatives set to launch in July 2024 that could help move the needle away from fee-for-service payments. One focuses on supporting family caregivers of dementia patients to forestall their admission to a nursing home and the considerable costs that accompany that decision. Another makes it…

A new study out of Harvard University links vertical relationships between primary care physicians (PCPs) and health systems to “steering,” in which providers refer patients to specialists and other care providers within the system. This steering led to higher utilization and spending on patient care, researchers found. Full Article

Patient-provider communication is at the forefront of the healthcare experience. Good communication has far-reaching impacts ranging from poor patient satisfaction to a misunderstanding of treatments and low patient engagement. Full Article

Interoperability and related compliance mandates are not new, though the landscape is ever changing. Without these two key components, progress is at stake. No one wants to return to the Wild West of health data and record keeping. Fortunately, the health care industry has been hard at work to put a national standard in place…

The health care industry is constantly evolving, and value-based care (VBC) has emerged as a transformative force in the pursuit of better patient outcomes. While VBC is not new, technological advances in recent years have made it possible to identify risks and opportunities for individuals and entire patient populations. Technology also facilitates early interventions that…

The Covid-19 public health emergency (PHE) prompted an industry-wide shift in healthcare delivery. Most notably, virtual care technologies that were slowly gaining traction pre-pandemic skyrocketed, and now, most healthcare provider organizations offer some form of virtual care. But, with the withdrawal of the PHE declaration in May, the urgent need for deploying telehealth-enabled care services…

The value-based care payment and care delivery model has been evolving for more than a decade, and with the right risk tolerance and aligned incentives, it promises to benefit patients, providers and payers. “While the adoption has been windy, there are clear signs of VBC’s stickiness and growing footprint,” explained John Fryer, chief revenue officer…