Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

$550 billion bill addresses medical practices. President Barack Obama was just sworn into office, but Congress already has a bill waiting for his review that will affect almost all American healthcare practices. The bill, known as the "American Recovery and Reinvest-ment Bill of 2009," proposes $550 billion in investments that will fund everything from clean energy to education. But the big news for medical practices across the country is that $26.6 billion will go toward healthcare initiatives. The bill, which now heads to House committees, then to the Senate, proposes channeling $20 billion into health information technology "to jumpstart efforts to computerize health records to cut costs and reduce medical errors," according to a Jan. 15 summary of the bill by Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Although no one specified where that $20 billion would go, analysts are hopeful that it will aid them in their [...]