April 9-13 Policy Watch: CMS Tells Providers to Prepare for New Medicare Cards
April 6—Providers will start to see new identification cards presented this month by Medicare enrollees, and that may require action steps.
FFS Medicaid Most Challenging for Billing: Study
April 4—One of the first direct comparisons of billing complexities between various types of payers found that Medicaid fee-for-service (FFS) programs were the most challenging for providers.
Medicare Advantage Rates, Policies Draw Insurer Praise
April 3—Medicare Advantage (MA) plans received an unexpected pay boost and generally beneficial policies in the final call letter and rules issued this week for 2019.
LTCH Pay Change to Cover Less than Half of Costs: Analysis
April 2—An ongoing Medicare payment change will cover less than half of the costs of care for long-term care hospital (LTCH) patients who are subject to it, according to a new analysis.
April 2-6 Policy Watch: National Opioid Summit to Highlight Challenges
March 29—Policymakers and healthcare providers will gather in Atlanta next week to identify effective approaches to an opioid crisis that appears to be worsening, according to new data.
Not-for-Profit Hospital Downgrades Increased in 2017: Report
March 27—Credit pressures drove more downgrades of not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals in 2017 than in 2016, with the NFP sector exceeding the downgrade-to-upgrade ratio of the recession years of 2008 and 2009, according to a report this month by Moody's Investors Service.
Proposal to Eliminate MIPS Appears to Lack Provider Buy-in
March 26—The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) earlier this month announced a proposal to drop the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program as part of its annual report to Congress on needed changes to Medicare payment policies.
Federal Spending Bill Lacks Sought-After ACA Stabilization Measures
March 22—A bill to fund the federal government through the rest of FY18 includes various healthcare measures but does not incorporate a proposed stabilization plan for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) insurance markets.
Association Health Plans Advance Over Hospital Concerns
March 20—Congressional Republicans and small-business advocates this week rejected hospital concerns that proposed rules to allow a proliferation of association health plans (AHPs) would produce a range of problems.
Smarter Tech Tools Battle Physician Burnout
March 19—About half of all U.S. practicing physicians experience burnout, and several recent studies have placed the blame squarely on the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), which require data entry and other click-based tasks.