Policy and Legislation
Continuing their crusade to make the congressional super committee aware of the repercussions of how cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will impact the skilled nursing facility industry, SNF advocates have released an analysis by Avalere Health that finds if more cuts are made, the industry's operating margin will be zilch.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Tuesday a new initiative to help improve care for patients while they are in the hospital and after they are discharged.
An alarming article in Politico.com looks at what could happen if the Supreme Court determines that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision is unconstitutional—something that the current conservative leaning of the Court seems to indicate is somewhat more likely than not.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is sponsoring a contest for new Facebook applications designed to help people prepare for emergencies and get support from friends and family after an emergency occurs.
John Goodman’s Three Simple Ways Medicare Can Save Money sparked ample debate on this blog and John’s. Now the Wall Street Journal has printed letters in response. Three of the four point out ways in which the simple solutions aren’t quite as promising as they seem.
Much of the focus in Washington has been on fixing Social Security's retirement system, but the disability system is in much worse shape. The trust fund that supports disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, according to new estimates.
The Affordable Care Act’s medical loss ratio issue (requiring insurers’ administrative and other non-medical costs to remain below prescribed percentages) has dropped out of the limelight recently, but that doesn’t mean that it’s been forgotten.
Ignoring months of protests, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Friday the next steps for an expansion of a competitive bidding program designed to help lower costs for quality durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies.
Quality improvements and lower costs have been touted as benefits of hospital-physician alignment, but such results are not guaranteed says a briefing released by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), a nonpartisan health policy research organization.
A new survey by the National Business Group on Health shows that most large employers plan to ask employees to share a greater portion of the costs for health benefits in 2012. Employers are also increasingly turning to consumer driven health plans in an effort to control costs.