Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) have introduced the Supporting ColoRectal Examination and Education Now (SCREEN) Act (S. 608/H.R. 1320). The act would waive Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing for those colorectal cancer screenings where polyps are removed during colonoscopy.

As accountable care organizations (ACOs) continue to proliferate, these 250 or so newly created entities are charged with improving population health. One problem, according to a viewpoint published March 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the murky meaning of population health. This lack of clarity may interfere with ACOs’ capabilities to achieve essential outcomes.

The $85 billion question of 2013 for healthcare stakeholders is a tough one: What will the impact of sequestration be on the U.S. health sector? John E. McDonough, DPH, MPA, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, outlined the fiscal fallout in a perspective published March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

With healthcare costs projected to climb to 20 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product by 2020, controlling spending has become a national imperative. Although physicians influence at least 60 percent of healthcare costs, there is a dramatic disconnect between physicians’ fiscal responsibility and their knowledge of healthcare resource management, according to a viewpoint published March 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

CT scan use in N.Y. state hospitals varied by 20 percent, according to a study published online in March in the American Journal of Managed Care. The researchers also reported a surprise finding: little difference in CT utilization between teaching and nonteaching hospitals.

In chasing “value” as the ultimate goal of healthcare reform, providers may misunderstand that patients and physicians see value in different ways, creating barriers to true reform, according to an article published March 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Representatives Pete Olson (R-TX), Peter Roskam (R-IL), John Barrow (D-GA) and Betty McCollum (D-MN), along with 38 House cosponsors, have reintroduced the Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection Act as HR 846.

Estimates suggest the annual bill for fraud in the U.S. hovers between $68 and $234 billion, or 3 to 10 percent of healthcare expenditures, while efforts to curb fraud have met with modest success at best, according to a commentary in The American Journal of Managed Care. The authors recommended physicians partner with regulators and employ health services research to address “rampant” Medicare and Medicaid fraud and waste.