Healthcare Roundup: Stimulus for EMRs, Hospitals to Disclose Charity, and More

(MoneyWatch)  Biden: Healthcare IT to be included in stimulus bill -- Vice President-elect Joe Biden said the economic-stimulus bill planned by the incoming Obama administration will include spending on healthcare IT, particularly efforts to encourage the use of electronic medical records. Details haven't been finalized, but early talk puts the healthcare-IT portion of the bill at $25 billion. [Source: Modern Healthcare]

Hospitals brace for more rigorous charity-care disclosure -- Starting Jan. 1, nonprofit hospitals will have to fill out a more complex Form 990, the tax return required by the IRS. Chief among the changes is Schedule H, the main purpose of which is to reveal what sort of charity care hospitals provide and what other sorts of community benefits they offer. [Source: HealthLeaders]

Credit crisis crunches hospital interest-rate swaps -- Hospitals frequently use derivatives known as interest-rate swaps to shield themselves from fluctuating interest rates on their issued bonds. The credit crunch, however, has squeezed the market for swaps, forcing hospitals to put up more collateral or cancel the contracts altogether. [Source: Dow Jones]

"Revenue management" yields University of Iowa $20M -- Installation of a new software system for "revenue management" helped University of Iowa Health Care recoup $20 million in payments from health-insurance companies. Among other things, the software tracks claims against payments in order to ensure that the hospital received the payments to which its insurance contracts entitled it. [Source: Healthcare IT News]

Healthcare IT challenge: Devices don't communicate -- Ordinary electronic gadgets are starting to "interoperate" with greater ease, but the trend doesn't extend to medical devices and hospital instrumentation. One healthcare coalition has designed sample contract language hospitals can use to require medical-device vendors to provide interoperability. [Source: Boston Globe]

Angie's List to make major push in medical ratings -- Angie's List, a subscription-based Web site that lets members rate and review contractors, plans a major expansion of its healthcare service next year. The site will launch a new health-provider ratings interface and a print magazine devoted to healthcare ratings and other health-related consumer topics. [Source: Inside Consumer-Directed Care]