Policy & Regulations

This channel includes news coverage of healthcare policy and regulations set by Congress, the states, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and medical associations and societies. 

Google given access to healthcare data of 1.6M patients

Artificial intelligence company DeepMind, owned by Google, has been given access to the healthcare data of 1.6 million patients from three hospitals, reports The Guardian.

CMS finalizes quality measure plan for MACRA transition

Following the rollout of the final MACRA rule, CMS has released its final framework for its Quality Measure Development Plan (MDP) to support its new reporting paths.

New health startups dealing with increased FDA scrutiny

As more health-related tech startups emerge in Silicon Valley, the FDA and other government agencies are stepping up their presence in the region like never before.

Joint Commission reverses course, OKs secure clinician texting

The commission's update allows for clinician texting and messaging for “care, treatment, and services…across all accreditation programs.”

The Society of Actuaries Partners with the CDC to Improve Public Health and Reduce Healthcare Costs

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., April 12, 2016 -- The Society of Actuaries (SOA) today announced a new relationship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that brings actuarial science to public health practice as part of the CDC's 6|18 initiative. Insights from actuarial science will help further understanding of healthcare cost savings that can be achieved through evidence-based prevention. 

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Organizations urge 90-day MU reporting period for 2016

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and 32 other organizations are asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to shorten the Meaningful Use reporting period for 2016 from 365 to 90 days.

5,500+ new, revised ICD-10 codes in the works for 2017

More than 5,500 diagnosis and procedures codes will be added to the ICD-10 coding system for fiscal year 2017.

CMS issues ICD-10 maintenance toolkit

The healthcare industry transitioned to ICD-10 back on Oct. 1 with few problems. Despite the success, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a new toolkit designed to help providers track and improve their ICD-10 performance.

Around the web

U.S. health systems are increasingly leveraging digital health to conduct their operations, but how health systems are using digital health in their strategies can vary widely.

When human counselors are unavailable to provide work-based wellness coaching, robots can substitute—as long as the workers are comfortable with emerging technologies and the machines aren’t overly humanlike.

A vendor that supplies EHR software to public health agencies is partnering with a health-tech startup in the cloud-communications space to equip state and local governments for managing their response to the COVID-19 crisis.