Reimbursement
The debate about the increasing role of nurse practitioners was taken up by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) early in April, when the commission addressed issues of reimbursement for NPs and other non-physician practitioners.
The Senate Finance committee on Tuesday unanimously approved Marilyn Tavenner to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Tavenner, who has been temporarily running CMS for the past two years, now faces a full Senate vote before she can officially assume the CMS Administrator position.
Michael D. Miller, MD, owner of HealthPolCom Consulting, speaks with George Jones, CEO of Bread for the City, about health reform and access to care for Washington, D.C.'s low-income population.
Delivering what founder and president Jason Grumet described as "one of the most challenging projects we've undertaken," the Bipartisan Policy Center on April 18 delivered what it hopes will be "a viable political plan to reign in the spiraling costs" of healthcare while also improving quality.
CCIIO is trying to clear any confusion on navigators, in-person assistors, application counselors and agents and brokers; small government advocates are making continued arguments against state HIXs; and California gets set to hire 500 for a call center.
Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), along with the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), unveiled on April 19 a bipartisan plan to strengthen and improve nation's drug distribution supply chain.
As the dust settles from the Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the results of the presidential election and, more recently, the sequester cuts, acute care providers are now turning attention to the looming reimbursement cuts.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe has signed a new law expanding Medicaid eligibility through the state's federal-partnership health insurance exchange -- one of the most unusual evolutions in Affordable Care Act policy, if also one HHS hopes will bring insurance to some 250,000 working class Arkansans who otherwise might continue to go uncovered amid the politics of Mediciad expansion.
University Hospitals, a healthcare system in northeast Ohio, has joined up with three smaller health systems in the state to create a new purchasing collaborative to save money on supplies and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery.
Connecticut's health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, has selected HealthPass and bswift to provide services and technology for a choice of health insurance options to small businesses throughout the state.