Medicare & Medicaid
Twenty physician organizations and other healthcare groups, including the American Medical Association, have submitted joint comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services praising the agency for some of its changes but say there is room for improvement in a proposed rule regarding Accountable Care Organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
Arguing that too many well-meaning providers are facing financial penalties from meaningful use, the American Hospital Association called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this week to offer more flexibility.
Backlogs in processing Medicaid benefits have left thousands of beneficiaries without care, according to the Kansas Health Institute News Service.
Healthy Indiana pushes Medicaid's traditional boundaries, which is why it has the attention of other conservative states. The plan demands something from all enrollees, even those below the poverty line. The poorest Hoosiers can get coverage with vision and even dental benefits, but only if they make small monthly contributions to individual accounts similar to health savings accounts.
An $11.8 million federal diabetes prevention model tested at the YMCA saved Medicare about $2,650 for each person enrolled, enough to cover the cost of the program, according to an announcement Wednesday by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.
Montana's new Medicaid expansion just got its first progress report, and it is exceeding expectations.
The 31 states and District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid are saving millions -- and in some cases, tens of millions -- compared to states that have not adopted the federal program, according to a report released Tuesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The National Quality Forum has published its guidance for the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. NQF's Measure Applications Partnership examined some five-dozen MIPS performance measures, proposed for implementation in 2017, from which data would be collected to track eligible providers' performance in 2019.
The Maine Bureau of Insurance is closely monitoring Community Health Options, as the nation's only profitable co-op under the Affordable Care Act in 2014 posted a net loss of $74 million for 2015 and 2016 this month, according to information on the maine.gov website.
The percentage of drugs requiring coinsurance has climbed steadily, increasing from 35 percent in 2014 to 45 percent last year. That percentage is approaching two-thirds of all covered drugs.