The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced that National Heritage Insurance Corporation (NHIC) has been awarded a contract of up to five years for the combined administration of Part A and Part B Medicare claims payment in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. CMS also reminds seniors that the time to chose Medicare Part D Plan is now.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and The Danish Medicines Agency announced a DKK 144m (approx $24 million) contract for a business transformation project to automatically process licensing of new drugs, further strengthening The Danish Medicines Agency's position in European medicine cooperation.

Medicare's pay-for-performance program ranks and rewards hospitals according to how well they meet certain guidelines for clinical care. But researchers at Duke Clinical Research Institute say the program penalizes hospitals that care for the greatest numbers of the poor and needy by not taking into account their greater clinical burden.

The New York Times reports on a recently announced change in Medicare’s policy that is likely to have far-reaching implications for practice of medical malpractice law. The largest insurer in the US will no longer pay bills resulting from what it deems “preventable” medical errors made by hospital employees on patients under their care.

Study Documents a Decade of Whistleblower-Initiated Legal Action Against Medicare Fraud

It's over, done, finished. For a few months, anyway. With the overwhelming Congressional vote to override Pres Bush's veto of the Medicare bill (keeping physician reimbursement levels and cutting subsidies for health plans' Medicare Advantage and Private Fee For Service), the pols can now move on to other issues.

The following is a statement by R Scott Ward, PT, PhD, President, American Physical Therapy Association on the Senate vote overriding Bushs Medicare Veto:

The "Medical Home" - A real Solution? Now that this year's fight over Medicare physician fees is all but over, it is important to turn to real solutions.

The Medicare vote to rescind the 10% cut in physician reimbursement likely kept many docs in the business of providing medical care to workers comp patients.

It is sad that the majority of Republicans want to keep giving private health insuance companies special financial treatment when low-income patients that use Medicare and those without health insurance are suffering so much.

Congressional Democrats tried to take a big bite out of private Medicare this past week in an attempt to pay for an 18 month fix to the upcoming July 1st 10.6% reduction in Medicare physician payments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced a new project that expands its efforts to encourage beneficiaries covered by traditional Medicare to take advantage of Internet-based resources to track their health care services and better communicate with their providers.