Although HIPAA has been around since 1996, it's only become a more familiar term in healthcare since the implementation of the Privacy Rule in 2001. The Privacy Rule was designed to specifically address the protection of an individual's personal health information (PHI), including the medical...

Accountable care organizations (ACO) are touted as a way to lower Medicare costs and reward organizations for providing team-based quality patient care. Results have been mixed so far (see sidebar, p. 3), but entities continue to launch or join ACOs for several reasons. For many, it's...