Health Care Finding Success, Challenges in Consumerism
Providers and health plans have found some success—and identified new challenges—in their efforts to better engage patients as consumers who are willing to choose care based on price and quality.
Hospitals Targeted in Federal Cost-Saving Ideas
A bipartisan group of policy advocates urged Congress to target hospitals as part of a highly anticipated legislative push on cost control.
Data Shows Executives’ Main Concern Is New Entrants Disrupting Healthcare Status Quo
What patient pain points are driving them to alternative providers.
Hospitals Warn Senate About Proposed Data-Blocking Rules
Proposed rules implementing a recent law aimed, in part, at stopping data blocking could carry a range of unintended consequences for hospitals, the Senate heard this week.
March 11-15: MedPAC Highlights Need for National ED Coding Guide
Medicare emergency department (ED) patients have gotten sicker in recent years, according to a new analysis of hospital coding trends. As a result, national ED coding guidelines may be needed, said the congressional advisory panel that conducted the analysis.
April 1-5: What Events Are Coming in Health Care
Next week’s healthcare finance events and developments include the online posting of 340B ceiling prices by a federal agency.
Why Hospitals Are Optimistic About Prospects for Star Ratings Overhaul
Hospital advocates hope an appeal tuned to the Trump administration’s focus on reducing costly and time-consuming provider burdens will pay off in an overhaul of the hospital star-rating system.
Hospitals See Improvement in Value Contracting with Commercial Plans
Hospitals continue to have more difficulty establishing value-based contracts with commercial health plans than with government payers, but that may be changing.
Medicare rates increasingly impacting health care
Even assuming the federal government does not adopt a single-payer model such as Medicare-for-all, industry watchers see Medicare’s impact on the healthcare sector expanding.
Provider payment standard draws congressional focus in surprise-bill debate
The fault line in congressional discussions this week on addressing surprise medical bills involved the best approach to determining provider payment in such situations.