Medicare & Medicaid
Numerous states reported requested rate decreases and only three have double-digit increases.
The demand for telemedicine - seen as an elixir for rural health accessibility - has put extreme demands on limited program funding, FCC says.
The therapy costs $375,000 or $475,000, with hospital stays due to adverse effects adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to care.
Medicare began reimbursing physicians for advance-care planning counseling in 2016, but only about a third of adults have such a document.
The rule increases new technology add-on payment from 50 to 65% for cases with high costs involving eligible new technologies.
Expanding coverage, lowering healthcare costs, central to Democratic agenda.
The Blue Button API pilot, Data at the Point of Care, aims to connect clinicians with claims data, giving them deeper insights into their patients' care history.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma says administration is not afraid of legal push-back from providers or payers.
Patient response rates have been declining over the years; the response rate was 33% in 2008 but just 26% in 2017.
Smaller hospitals may lack the requisite expertise, personnel and financial resources necessary to make the leap.