Earlier this month, two House lawmakers introduced a bill (HR 3018) that would allow both ICD-9 and ICD-10 coding for six months after the ICD-10 transition deadline, Health Data Management reports. 
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Editor’s note: APMA’s ICD-10 Resources will help you prepare for the transition to happen October 1, 2015.

A slowdown in healthcare spending has shored up the funding outlook for the federal program that pays elderly Americans' hospital bills, trustees of the program said on Wednesday.

In May, hackers broke into the networks of an Indiana-based medical software company. The company, Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE), operates more than 300 medical centers in 38 states. The company believes the compromised data includes patient names, mailing and email addresses, Social Security numbers and sensitive medical records.

Medicare says its computerized fraud prevention system worked like a cybercharm last year, identifying $454 million in problematic payments and generating a financial return for the taxpayer of $10 for every dollar spent.

Sure, no one can predict the future. But it is fun to surmise where technology and innovation may take us. And with health care, how people will interact with doctors, how lives may be extended and diseases eradicated. So we asked the The Experts, a group of medical and health care professionals, to tell us what they think the future holds for
health care.

About 7.5 million Americans paid an average penalty of $200 for not having health insurance in 2014, the first year most Americans were required to have coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.

Most health care providers are optimistic when it comes to ICD-10 reimbursement and workflow expectations, according to results from a recently released ICD-10 survey of health care providers from eHealth Initiative and the American Health Information Management Association.

Most older Americans close to death have to make a difficult choice: continue with traditional medical treatment or switch to hospice care, which focuses not on a cure but on easing their remaining days. Now, Medicare is testing a third alternative: both.

It's summertime and for some of us that means hot, sweaty, stinky feet.

Coffee drinkers in a long-term study were about half as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as those who didn't drink coffee, and researchers think an inflammation-lowering effect of the beverage might be the key.

Researchers are looking at whether a low-calorie liquid diet can reverse Type 2 diabetes or reduce the need for insulin.

Most people associate diabetes with excessive sugar intake or unhealthy living and think having diabetes means constantly taking shots of insulin. In fact, many don't realize there are actually a variety of diabetes that affect people in different ways.

Everybody knows if you don't pay to repair your car, you limit its life. The same is true with people. We need medical care to avoid becoming clunkers. For a half-century, Medicare has enabled seniors to get that care. But now the Obama administration is pressuring hospitals to skimp.

Whether you are slim or obese, if you drink lots of sugary soda or other sweetened drinks you are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a new analysis reveals.

Your risk for Type 2 diabetes might be affected by both your birth weight and your lifestyle, a new study suggests.

By targeting inflammation, adult allergenic bone-marrow–derived mesenchymal precursor cells (MPCs) may represent a novel treatment for Type 2 diabetes, a new pilot study suggests.
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Editor's note: Studies prove care by a podiatrist helps prevent diabetes complications and saves health care dollars.

The long-awaited ICD-10 transition is less than three months away and ICD-10 preparation gaps still remain for many providers in the area of testing and revenue impact assessments, according to the 2015 ICD-10 Readiness report published by AHIMA and the eHealth Initiative.

A watchdog report on fictitious people signing up for Obamacare has put renewed attention on the potential for fraud and abuse in the system.
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Editor's note: Visit APMA's healthcare reform page to learn more about key provisions in the ACA for podiatrists and more.

In June 25, 2015, the Supreme Court upheld President Obama's hotly debated Affordable Care Act in a 6-3 decision. For those following the debate intently, it is understood that the verdict now authorizes federal tax credits for eligible Americans living in states with their own exchanges and also those in the 34 states with federal marketplaces.

A state appeals court Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of a controversial change in Florida's medical-malpractice laws, ruling in part that some privacy rights are "waived" when people pursue malpractice lawsuits.

At a paper mill in Longview, Washington, Kurt Gallow and his wife, Brenda, are worrying about his company's proposed new health care plan, which would require workers to pay as much as $6,000 toward their families' medical bills. Mrs. Gallow's diabetic condition almost certainly will mean thousands of dollars more a year for her care alone, if the new plan is put in place, which may happen as early as next year.