Reimbursement

Consumers face steep rate hikes next year. Some will be forced to make a difficult choice: pay a higher price to keep their plans -- and doctors -- or switch plans to save money but risk losing their doctors.

The agency is distributing close to $6 billion in uncompensated care payments over the next fiscal year, a decrease of about $400 million.

The $117 million deal will only happen if regulators approve their merger.

Medicare beneficiaries in certain Iowa and Illinois counties will have more options come the next open enrollment period.

The federal government will punish more than half of the nation's hospitals -- a total of 2,597 -- for excess readmissions by withholding more than half a billion dollars in Medicare payments over the next year, records released Tuesday show.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will extend and expand a temporary moratorium on provider enrollment in six states meant to combat fraud, and at the same time, has created a new related demonstration project to allow for certain exceptions to the moratoria and heightened screening requirements for new providers, the agency announced Monday.

A report in 2012 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse revealed that medical schools devoted little time to teaching addiction medicine -- only a few hours over four years. Since then, the number of Americans overdosing from prescribed opioids has surpassed 14,000 per year, quadrupling from 1999 to 2014.

CMS estimates that up to 5,000 primary care practices serving an estimated 3.5 million beneficiaries could participate in the model.

Hospitals cannot simply throw technology at the new payment model. Instead, thriving under MACRA will take leadership and analytical thinking, IT expert says.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a number of payment and policy changes last week, addressing Medicare inpatient rehabilitation facilities, hospice benefit and skilled nursing facilities.