Morning Headlines 12/18/13

Former Microsoft Executive Kurt DelBene To Replace Jeff Zients

CMS taps recently retired Microsoft VP Kurt DelBene to take over Healthcare.gov. DelBene was formerly in charge of the Microsoft Office division. He will take over for Jeff Zients, who stepped in to oversee the immediate fixes needed just after the October 1 launch.

HealthTech Unifies Brands as MEDHOST, Names Herrod as President

HealthTech, the parent company of MEDHOST, HMS, and Patient Logic, consolidates all of its businesses under the MEDHOST brand name and names Craig Herrod president of the new organization. Herrod was formerly the president and CEO of MEDHOST.

Paulsen Introduces Legislation to Streamline and Enhance U.S. Healthcare Delivery

Congressman Erik Paulsen introduces a bill that would require the use of clinical decision support tools by physicians when ordering imaging studies on Medicare patients.

New Approaches for Delivering Primary Care Could Reduce Predicted Physician Shortage

A RAND study looks at alternative models for delivering primary care services that would help alleviate the growing physician shortage. Researchers focused on the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and the nurse-managed health center (NMHC) models and found that projected PCP shortages could be substantially reduced by increasing the use of these models.