For decades, attempts at U.S. healthcare legislation have been plagued by unintended consequences, evidenced by ballooning Medicare and Medicaid costs that gobbled nearly 25 percent of federal spending this year. Policymakers have not yet learned from the past and may be doomed to repeat and amplify those mistakes unless politicians, physicians, patients and payors can compromise on future healthcare legislation, according to an article published in this month's Journal of American College of Radiology.

Medicaid spending is below target in the current fiscal year and initiatives adopted have saved the state of New York nearly $600 million, according to information from the New York State Medicaid Redesign Team.

A new study compares patient outcomes at hospitals accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC) with outcomes for the same treatments at hospitals without TJC accreditationand finds the former handily outperforming the latter across the board.

The FDA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have launched a pilot program to conduct parallel reviews of medical devices for concurrent FDA approval and Medicare coverage.

Medicare payments for acute ischemic stroke patients who underwent endovascular embolectomy did not adequately reimburse hospital costs, according to a report published online in the Oct. 6 issue of Stroke. Even when patients had a good outcome, reimbursement fell $15,000 short of costs, the analysis found.

The shift in the driver of baseline spending growth away from increases in spending per beneficiary toward demographic changes has important policy implications for Medicare, according to a perspective paper published Oct. 6 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

An Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee has made six recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for the process of defining essential health benefits (EHBs), mandated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The HHS sought recommendations from the IOM in defining EHBs offered by health plans participating in newly created state health insurance exchanges.

Over the next decade, the population of cancer survivors over 65 years of age will increase by approximately 42 percent, according to a report published in the October issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.