After a wealth of comments poured in, the ICD-10 code release has been delayed until 2013.

Findings in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that if all hospitals used a checklist, thousands of lives could be saved along with $20 billion in medical costs.

News story roundup: HHS Issues final ICD-10 code sets; Medicare launches PHR Choice pilot in Arizona and Utah; The Joint Commission puts HCAHPS results on qualitycheck.org;  Rand releases Rand COMPARE (Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts) to help with the evaluation of health policies.

Avatar International Named by University HealthSystem Consortium as a Preferred Provider of Patient Satisfaction, Quality Assessment Surveys.

Almost all of the hospitals that participated in the hospital outpatient quality data reporting program will receive the full payment update for calendary year 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced yesterday.

The department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released an action plan to prevent healthcare-associated infections, one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.