Susan Morse
Because hospital-acquired infections are a common complication and extend inpatient stays, hospitals actually save money by building costly, single-patient rooms, according to a new study by Cornell University.
For the fourth consecutive year, physician-owned hospitals are among the top performers in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services value-based purchasing program, according to Physicians Hospitals of America.
Republican said he would curtail the state's expansion of Medicaid by seeking a waiver for a more restrictive version of the program.
Montana has become the 30th state to expand Medicaid, with federal officials on Monday signing off on a plan to expand coverage to low-income residents through a federal waiver that requires beneficiaries to pay premiums of up to 2 percent of their income.
Nearly 500 hospitals have been ordered to pay the government more than $250 million to resolve allegations they allowed cardiac devices to be implanted in Medicare patients who were not eligible for the procedure, according to an Oct. 30 announcement from the Department of Justice in Florida.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will not change its policy regarding the two-midnight inpatient rule but will allow greater flexibility for physician judgment in cases that do not meet the two-midnight benchmark, the federal agency announced Friday.
Bill stops CMS from paying hospitals outpatient rates at newly-acquired off-site locations.
About 10 percent of claims filed under ICD-10 have been denied since the coding vocabulary became the norm on October 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Thursday, though only a small number of those denials were due to coding errors.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is reportedly poised to buy Botox-maker Allergan, in what would be one of the biggest takeover deal this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Aetna has signed accountable care organization agreements with systems affiliated with Trinity Health, the benefits company announced Tuesday.