The ICD-10 Compliance date is looming and it is imperative that health care providers be prepared to make the transition. Many organizations may be rallying employees and resources in order to make the switch from the ICD-9 to the ICD-10 coding for medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures before the implementation date of October 1, 2015.
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Editor’s Note: Are you prepared for the ICD-10 transition? APMA has the last-chance resources you need. Sign up for our August 20 webinar; August 22 seminar in Washington, DC; or check out our ICD-10 resources page. 

Services splint strains and suture wounds on-site; are house calls better than ER visits?

The CMS has picked veteran federal contractor Booz Allen Hamilton to replace Optum subsidiary QSSI as the key contractor on HealthCare.gov. The five-year contract is worth $202 million.

Health insurers are firing back at hospitals after a leading hospital group sent a letter to the Department of Justice this week sounding the alarm about insurance company mergers.

The federal government has postponed the release of data that will show how much health insurance companies will receive or be charged under an Affordable Care Act program meant to mitigate the risk of taking on previously uninsured members.

Health care professionals should place a greater emphasis on diabetic foot problems, according to Robert P. Thompson, executive director of the non-profit Institute for Preventive Foot Health.
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Editor’s Note: Share APMA’s diabetes resources with your patients.

Since the bones of the feet are permanent structures and the sidewalks, concrete and wooden floors you walk on are non-resilient, we must make a new walking surface for the feet to function properly.

When you get up in the morning does it hurt to walk? Do you have stabbing pain in the bottom of your foot? You might be dealing with Plantar Fasciitis.

If you're searching for reasons why Google has renamed itself Alphabet, here's one: It positions the tech company to expand into health care, which could be very healthy for its long-term fortunes.

Some people who signed up for health care through Obamacare may not have been qualified for the benefits they received, according to a government audit released Monday.

Despite efforts by critics to stave off the transition to the ICD-10 coding system, the mandated October 1, 2015, deadline became a near certainty when the American Medical Association (AMA) signaled a cooperative arrangement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in early July to assist practitioners in making the switch.

IBM Corp said it would buy medical image company Merge Healthcare Inc in a $1 billion deal and combine it with its newly formed health analytics unit, which is powered by its famous Watson supercomputer.

Is the Hospital Quality Star Ratings system released by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) too problematic to be effective? According to the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE), the program&'s overall design has many flaws that require ironing out — specifically transparency gaps, lack of adherence to notice-and-comment rule-making procedures, and vaguely presented burden costs.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published proposed revisions to the Stark Law — a key piece of health care regulation involving physician self-referral regulations. As penalties and sanctions involving a lack of Stark Law compliance threaten
hospitals' ability to remain open, what's next on the health care horizon?

Most doctors in the U.S. continue to see and treat Medicare patients, of course, but the controversy of new scorecards and Yelp ratings tied directly to Medicare data could have a negative influence on their decision to see patients with reimbursement rates that are lower than private insurance.