Policy and Legislation
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.
California's insurance exchange is threatening to cut hospitals from its networks for poor performance or high costs, a novel proposal that is drawing heavy fire from medical providers and insurers.
Over 300 healthcare and patient advocacy organizations sent a letter to Senate and House leaders on Thursday urging them to press the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to permanently withdraw a reduced Part B drug payment model from consideration.
The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee held a bipartisan debate Wednesday over the future of Medicare and planned cuts to the Medicare Advantage program as sharp party divides over healthcare continue to widen.
Of the 3,651 new codes, 97 percent will update the cardiovascular and lower joint body systems. There will also be new codes for a face transplant, hand transplant and donor organ perfusion, CMS said.
Texas Republican Sen.Ted Cruz promised during a nighttime speech in his home state that he would kill the Affordable Care Act, "abolish" the Internal Revenue Service, stop amnesty and rebuild the military.
Donald Trump's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would cost an estimated $270 billion over ten years and would nearly double the number of uninsured Americans, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit, bipartisan fiscal watchdog group.
Here are three specific changes finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services that affect consumers who buy their own health insurance in one of the 38 states using the online federal insurance exchange.
Medical groups have already started educating their members about the law and other end-of-life options. The California Medical Association issued a document earlier this year that explains to doctors and patients how the law works. Many physicians are going to have to figure out how to talk to patients when the patients raise the question.
In 2016, health insurance co-ops have gained needed enrollment but half of those set up under the Affordable Care Act three years ago have failed, costing taxpayers over $1 billion, according to a Senate subcommittee which has investigated what went wrong.