Give Verma a chance.

Seema Verna, the Indiana consultant who injected personal responsibility requirements and health savings accounts into that state's Medicaid program, deserves a shot at working with other states that want to redesign their programs.

'Interoperability continues to be the big issue'.

Paul Black took over the reins of electronic health record vendor Allscripts Healthcare Solutions in 2012 after 13 years with rival Cerner Corp., where he rose to chief operating officer. In between, he spent five years with a private equity firm, which served him well in the past year as AlIscripts acquired firms with software offerings that go well beyond its mainstay physician office business. Editor Merrill Goozner recently spoke with Black, 59, about his strategy for Allscripts and the future direction of the EHR business. The following is an edited transcript.

The medical imperative for data-sharing.

Bryan Olson, a 47-year-old prostate cancer survivor with short spiky hair, dark glasses and the pallor of someone who has spent too many hours staring at computer screens, has become an evangelist for unlocking medical records through data-sharing and interoperability.

Blame Congress for the coming 'death spiral'.

Despite repeated warnings from conservative realists, the Senate and House last week put in motion an Obamacare "repeal and delay" strategy that would destabilize the individual health insurance markets that provide coverage for over 11 million Americans.

It's not that complicated To: President Donald Trump From: HHS Secretary Tom Price Re: It's complicated.

Dear Mr. President, You face some difficult choices in helping Congress come up with a replacement for the disastrous Obamacare. This memo is designed to alert you to the complications in the approaches you've now endorsed.

Dr. Price's conflicts of interest.

Democratic senators, several of whom are themselves avid traders in healthcare stocks, were right to roast HHS secretary designee Dr. Tom Price for his unseemly plunges into individual healthcare equities.

The false promise of state-based reform.

News leaks from last month's Republican Congressional retreat revealed there's a growing concern that precipitous change to the individual health insurance markets created by Obamacare will trigger their collapse.

'Pricing now appears to more accurately match medical costs'.

For the past two years, Marilyn Tavenner, who had bipartisan support when selected by President Barack Obama to run the CMS, has served as CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, the leading trade association for health insurers. She's now seeking to marshal bipartisan support to save an individual insurance market dubbed a "disaster" by President Donald Trump and many Republicans on Capitol Hill. Last week, just prior to her testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Tavenner spoke about the fate of the market and other issues with Modern Healthcare editor Merrill Goozner. The following is an edited transcript.

How not to fix Medicare.

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to leave Medicare alone. But in choosing Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina to head the Office of Management and Budget, he is signaling a huge fight lies ahead over the future of the program.

The AHCA's hidden costs will hurt everyone.

It's time to start calling the American Health Care Act by its true name-the Force Older and Poorer Americans to Postpone Health Care Act.

Trump and Ryan are playing the long game.

Last week, the nation's hospital and physician groups joined patient, consumer and senior advocates in condemning the newly introduced American Health Care Act, which guts Medicaid and provides inadequate subsidies for buying individual health insurance plans.

'The software should be a joy to use'.

Since its founding in 1979, Epic Systems Corp. of Verona, Wis., has grown to become the nation's No. 1 healthcare software firm, with $2.5 billion in annual sales and 9,700 employees. Founder Judith Faulkner, one of Modern Healthcare's Top 25 Women In Healthcare, still plays a major role in setting strategy at the firm. At last month's Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual conference in Orlando, Fla., Modern Healthcare Editor Merrill Goozner sat down with Faulkner for an interview. The following is an edited transcript.

Redefining the right to healthcare down.

With Republican leaders promising to quickly repeal the Affordable Care Act and only promising to enact a replacement, it's worth revisiting the question of whether healthcare is a right.

Which Scott Gottlieb will run the FDA?

Dr. Scott Gottlieb is by far the most conflicted person nominated to run the 111-year-old Food and Drug Administration. He's received payments from or invested in dozens of companies with business before the agency, earning millions of dollars in the process.

The high-deductible plan trap.

Republicans seem intent on pursuing a disastrous Obamacare replacement plan that couples catastrophic coverage with subsidized health savings accounts.

"We're seeing business models predicated on building value".

Dr. Farzad Mostasharl helped shape the electronic health record landscape from 2011 to 2013 as head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Today, he is CEO of Aledade, a Bethesda, Md.-based startup with 150 employees that manages physician-led accountable care organizations. Editor Merrill Goozner recently spoke with Mostashari about how the coming regulatory and political changes will affect his business, which manages ACOs for over 1,000 primary-care doctors in 15 states. The following is an edited excerpt.

End the slow-walk on payment reform.

Remember payment reform? Shared risk, bundled payments, global budgets-these baby steps are supposed to teach hospitals and physician practices how to stay on their feet financially while walking away from fee-for-service medicine.

Some benefits are essential.

The House of Representatives last week postponed voting to gut Obamacare after new provisions weakening the essential benefits guarantee failed to win support from right-wing Republicans, who oppose almost any form of subsidized health insurance.