Medicare & Medicaid

The U.S. House and Senate are considering trade legislation that would be financed in part by $700 million from extended Medicare sequestration authority -- much to the consternation of the healthcare provider community.

Like other recent proposals for inpatient hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, payment would be tied to new standards for quality reporting.

Proposal also means 19 hospitals now listed as rural would be converted to urban, losing their 14.9 percent payment adjustment.

"You're talking about a healthcare service that's more challenging to regulate. People are going into other people's homes, rather than going into a facility," expert says.

ManorCare pressured skilled nursing facility administrators and rehabilitation therapists to meet unrealistic financial goals that resulted in medically unreasonable and unnecessary services to Medicare and Tricare patients, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The problem is that sometimes Medicare pays for care outside the hospice benefit that it already paid hospice to cover.

Tax deals and donations were not enough to keep the facility open.

Texas health system offering patients more choice and nurturing its own health plan, even while collaborating with major insurers.

Obama administration tells state leaders that failing to expand Medicaid could jeopardize special funding to pay hospitals and doctors for treating the poor.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it expects to include further discussion of the issue in the 2016 prospective payment systems proposal to be published this summer.