Policy and Legislation
Hays Green, healthcare policy practice lead at WPC, a Nashville-based company that provides consulting solutions, has outlined five preparatory actions that providers can kickstart today to create a solid infrastructure to achieve long-term ACO goals. "These steps can help organizations enter the commercial realm of accountable care models on level footing," Green said.
Long-term care pharmacy provider, Omnicare, may have reached a settlement in a whistle-blower lawsuit brought against the company five years ago.
A corner of the healthcare industry publicly asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider jumping directly to ICD-11. Here's a look at the reasons why this option was not selected by HHS.
HHS finalized October 1, 2014 as the deadline for ICD-10 compliance on Aug. 24. In so doing, the agency sparked widespread relief across the industry.
The one-year proposed delay of the ICD-10 compliance deadline has been finalized announced the the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday. The final rule delays the compliance deadline from Oct. 1, 2013, to Oct. 1, 2014.
HHS' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released final requirements for Stage 2 meaningful use that hospitals and healthcare providers must meet in order to qualify for incentives, and criteria that electronic health records must meet to achieve certification.
In its latest budget outlook update, the Congressional Budget Office has once again marked down its forecast for Medicare spending, but the nonpartisan agency also noted that spending on the program (and on Medicaid) is still expected to grow faster than the economy, reaching 14.4 percent of the gross domestic product in 2022.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) showed that half of all the billings paid by Medicare in 2010 to community mental health centers for the partial hospitalization program were questionable.
With an increasing demand for home care services, home care businesses have been springing up in communities across the country. And with the rapid expansion of these largely unregulated businesses questions about the industry's hiring practices have begun to surface.
A legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act's restriction on doctors owning hospitals was foiled last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals in Houston dismissed an appeal from Physician Hospitals of America and the Texas Spine & Joint Hospital.