The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) today announced that medical device manufacturers have now paid an estimated $1 billion to the Internal Revenue Service for the medical device excise tax.

The Department of Health and Human Services says it will not budge on its October 1, 2014, ICD-10 implementation date.

Between 1990 and 2010, significant improvements were made in U.S. healthcare, with life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy increasing alongside drops in all-cause death rates. However, despite these gains, the U.S. is failing to keep up with population health progress in the other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, according to a report published online July 10 in JAMA.

Four trends will converge and shape the future of healthcare in the U.S. RAND Corporation Chair in Policy Analysis Arthur Kellerman, MD, outlined the issues—healthcare reform, information asymmetry, cost-sharing and innovation—in a Health Affairs blog.

The accepted narrative on medical imaging says imaging rates peaked in the mid-2000s, but tailed off and began to decline more recently. The percentage of annual medical visits made by Medicare-aged patients that resulted in imaging, however, has been in steady decline since 2003, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

The American Medical Association House of Delegates voted June 18 to recognize obesity as a disease. The move, which overrode recommendations of AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health, could open the door to improved reimbursement for treatment.

Two experts outlined the pros and cons of pay for performance in the Wall Street Journal. The article includes a chart placing radiologists at the top of specialist compensation. Meanwhile, noninvasive cardiology showed the highest growth in median compensation from 2002 to 2011.

In 2011, Medicare paid between 18 and 30 percent more than other payers for the top 20 most common lab tests, and could have saved almost $1 billion if it paid providers the lowest rate in each geographic area negotiated by other payers, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG).