Healthcare Finance Staff
For many years, members of the skilled nursing community have been voicing concerns about the sector's ability to remain viable in the face of continued reimbursement cuts from the federal government. A new analysis bolsters their argument that SNFs are on shaky ground.
More than half of private companies are finding themselves ahead of the government's employer insurance requirements now that the Treasury Department has delayed compliance until 2015.
Employees buying health insurance in private exchanges, with defined contributions from their employers, tend to choose plans with lower premiums and higher deductibles, according to data published by the private insurance exchange Liazon.
The administrative director of a Columbus, Ga., cancer clinic has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging violations of the False Claims Act for "systematically" overbilling Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE with widespread upcoding and shoddy documentation practices.
Many state health insurance exchanges will show a high level of plan competition and attract multiple insurers, based on the experience of six states, according to a new report released Friday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
The integrated care model has been touted as being able to deliver better care for patients and lower costs and improve efficiencies for the healthcare system. A recent study of the model in the United Kingdom by RAND Europe suggests that it does indeed provide benefits, but those benefits are most likely perceived by healthcare professionals rather than by their patients, and cost savings were minimal.
Insurer WellPoint will pay a $1.7 million fine to settle potential HIPAA violations that it left the names, Social Security numbers and other personal health information of more than 600,000 individuals accessible over the Internet, the Health and Human Services Department said late Thursday in a news release.
"Let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience," Henry Chao, CMS deputy CIO, said of the federal government's goal for the consumer experience in health insurance exchanges. Among the "young invincibles" needed for functioning exchange markets, though, the online experience may make or break their interest in buying insurance.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) 2014 proposed rules for the hospital outpatient prospective system (OPPS), released earlier this week, offer payment increases and "packaging" of services.
Several advocacy groups and professional societies are criticizing a tentative decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services not to cover a new Alzheimer's diagnostic tool in all but a few cases in clinical studies.