How are today's accountable care organizations led and reimbursed? How many lives do they cover and what are the most common types of patient populations? What challenges do they face, and how long does it take, on average, to create an ACO?

CMS has hired Figliozzi & Company of Garden City, N.Y., to perform the promised audits of Medicare providers and dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid hospitals that have received federal electronic health record system incentive payments.

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (pdf) as constitutional, although the Medicaid expansion provision was limited but not invalidated.

The article below is reprinted with permission from The Capital Issue, a quarterly newsletter published by Lancaster Pollard.

"But in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes."

Benjamin Franklin may need to amend his famous quotation to include the certainty of reimbursement uncertainty for healthcare providers. Considering the size and scope of Medicaid and Medicare, the threat of reimbursement-rate cuts for these programs can be particularly problematic for hospitals as they seek financial stability and plan for future capital projects.

The Valley Orthopaedic Specialists clinic, part of Yakima (Wash.) Valley Memorial Hospital, will close its doors Sept. 30, according to a Yakima Herald-Republic report.

Approximately 228,435 Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries where victim to a security breach when former South Carolina HHS employee, Christopher Lykes Jr., allegedly transferred personal information to his email account, according to a CMIO report.

The following data, from the National Hospital Discharge Survey, reflects the expected hospital payment source in different regions of the United States. Expected payment source is the type of program or insurance that, upon admission to the hospital, was expected to be the principal payor for the hospital stay.

On April 10, 2012, The Utah Department of Technology Services and the Utah Department of Health announced the total number of individuals affected by the breach had grown. They reported 280,000 individuals had their Social Security numbers stolen from a computer server in a data breach last week. Additionally, around 500,000 individuals had less-sensitive personal information stolen.

The Utah Department of Health has announced that a data breach, which occurred last week, has affected 181,604 Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Plan recipients, a larger impact than originally believed.

In an oral argument ending a three-day series of healthcare reform hearings, Supreme Court justices considered whether the law's Medicaid expansion is coercive to states, according to a Politico report.

Today, the last day of hearings on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the law's severability and Medicaid expansion, according to a Washington Post report.