Policy and Legislation
A quarter of the nation's hospitals, those with the worst rates of hospital-acquired conditions, will lose 1 percent of every Medicare payment for a year starting in October. The sanctions, estimated to total $330 million over a year, kick in at a time when most infections measured in hospitals are on the decline, but still too common.
MedPAC is out with its 15th annual mid-year report, offering advice for Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services to improve and sustain the senior's health program as it enrolls millions of retiring baby boomers. Here's what hospitals need to know about the commission's latest thinking.
One of the worst failures of the Affordable Care Act is that, even with subsidies, the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are unaffordable for far too many people. Unfortunately, a new proposal for catastrophic plans with very high deductibles would make accessing healthcare truly unaffordable for even more people.
Hospital revenue fell in 2014's first quarter compared with the final three months of 2013, the Census Bureau estimated last week. And for a full year -- from Q1 2013 to Q1 2014 -- revenue for healthcare and social assistance rose only 2.9 percent.
The Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide coverage for full-time employees, but not part-timers. That sounds like a straightforward and reasonable provision, but as usual the devil is in the details.
Of the states that built their own health insurance exchanges that are now operational, Washington, Kentucky and Minnesota enjoyed some successes that might be replicated.
The Congressional Budget Office recently said it could no longer evaluate the fiscal implications of all of the law's provisions, leading to some concerns about the implications of a lack of independent assessment.
The U.S. Senate voted in Sylvia Matthews Burwell as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday afternoon. She is slated to officially take over for outgoing Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after a swearing in ceremony on Monday.
An Illinois home health case heard recently by the Supreme Court could reach far beyond that sector, dramatically changing the way labor unions operate across the country.
Hospitals in states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act are already bringing in fewer self-pay and charity care patient cases, according to an analysis by the Colorado Hospital Association.