Policy and Legislation
Many Medicare beneficiaries treated at primarily rural "critical access" hospitals end up paying between two and six times more for outpatient services than do patients at other hospitals, according to a report released Wednesday by the HHS inspector general.
This week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expanded the agency's Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes, and proposed new conditions of participation for home health agencies.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case brought by Idaho providers over an issue that has split many lower courts: whether Medicaid providers have a Constitutional right to sue states to enforce Medicaid funding regulations.
Are hospitals exploiting the 340B drug discount program? Critics of the federal government's program have some new evidence in the debate over healthcare subsidies.
Rural health providers may feel burdened by a confluence of policy and financing trends. But one opportunity, depending on the state, can help with sustainability.
Medicare is fining a record number of hospitals -- 2,610 -- for having too many patients return within a month for additional treatments, federal records released Oct. 1 show. Thirty-nine of those are receiving the largest penalty allowed.
A long awaited clarification of the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System will impact the accounting on a wide range of routine expenses.
With the big push toward data collecting and using data to lower costs and improve patient care, healthcare organizations are finding themselves in need of data analysts.
In Massachusetts, the expansion of Partners HealthCare is offering a fractious case study of integration and health reform and begs the question: how big is too big?
After months fraught with website glitches and widespread industry opposition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made public Open Payments, its "new system of records" detailing physicians' receipt of payment and gifts from pharmaceutical companies and other third-party business associates.