Policy and Legislation
Whether or not accountable care organizations should take on more risk after just one year of experience or after three years in the Medicare Shared Savings Program was the issue the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission addressed at its monthly meeting Thursday.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has updated a handful of documents in the past week on the controversial regulations surrounding its two-midnight inpatient admissions guidance and patient status reviews.
Two key congressional committees have agreed on a framework to scrap the problematic Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR, payment formula for physicians and replace it with one that would link physician reimbursement to the quality of care provided.
The criticisms of Healthcare.gov and the leaders responsible for the roll out have been coming fast and furious since the beginning of October. This week, two of those leaders were in the hot seat.
The Medicare Part A deductible will increase by $32 in calendar year 2014, while the monthly Part A premium will decline by $9 or $15. Part B monthly premiums and deductibles will remain unchanged.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a bill that would expand telemedicine coverage for Medicare and Medicaid patients, and adjust payments for certain telehealth services.
Hospitals are cutting their operating costs in order to adjust to reduced revenues as Medicare tightens payments.
As a business owner I’m enthusiastic about the idea of government policies that promote economic growth. But I’m disappointed to hear the term “pro-growth” used as a label for policies that reduce taxes, restrict social programs, and reject the Affordable Care Act.
The two-midnight rule has the potential to increase hospital revenues from observation status patients but that revenue will be offset by shorter inpatient stays.
With the difficulties that individuals have already faced in trying to access, shop and enroll online in the health insurance exchanges attracting most of the roll-out attention, it’s easy to forget that every new major online venture also opens consumers to the possibility of fraud.