News Briefs: Hospital advocates say Medicare’s 2025 outpatient payment update should have been higher
Medicare payments to hospitals for outpatient services will rise by 2.9% in 2025, according to a final rule published Nov. 1. The update is derived from a 3.4% increase in the market basket and a reduction of 0.5 percentage points as required based on the economywide productivity adjustment. Any hospital that does not fulfill quality-reporting…
David Johnson: RFK Jr. will focus on ‘Getting America healthy again’ — and maybe it’s possible
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign for the U.S. presidency and endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump in exchange for broad inter-departmental authority to address the chronic disease epidemic plaguing the nation.
The financial state of the not-for-profit hospital sector: key takeaways from the latest medians
The financial condition of the U.S. not-for-profit (NFP) hospital industry can be described as steadily improving but still struggling, according to insights from two of the three main credit-rating agencies. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global both recently issued reports on sector medians, using audited data from 2023. The companies described an industry that has rebounded…
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News Briefs: A second appeals court rules against providers in the 340B contract-pharmacy dispute
A decision issued by an appeals court represents the latest setback for 340B providers seeking to secure price discounts on Medicare Part B drugs. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 21 upheld a district-court ruling that drug manufacturers can impose restrictions on the 340B discounts they provide for drugs dispensed at contract pharmacies.…
A new DOJ task force is the latest example of intensified federal oversight of healthcare antitrust issues
A new task force at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is likely to bring additional scrutiny on whether healthcare transactions adversely affect competition. The department’s Antitrust Division announced the formation of a group to “consider widespread competition concerns shared by patients, healthcare professionals, businesses and entrepreneurs, including issues regarding payer-provider consolidation, serial acquisitions, labor…
Maryland’s example is no solution to healthcare’s true crises
In the wake of Medicare’s enactment in 1965, healthcare costs in the United States began rising at double-digit rates annually.a Many policy experts blamed hospital costs, which by 1980 had reached almost 41% of health spending.b It was believed that if you contained hospital costs, overall health spending would come under control. In 1974, the…
News Briefs: Hospital advocates bemoan the small Medicare payment increase proposed for FY25
The payment update described in Medicare’s FY25 proposed rule for inpatient hospital care and long-term care hospitals falls well short of what hospitals need to keep up with costs, advocates say. The inpatient payment rate would rise by 2.6% for hospitals that fulfill quality-reporting requirements and meet the criteria to be designated as meaningful users…
News Briefs: Providers face trying times in the first month after the Change Healthcare cyberattack
Healthcare providers struggled financially and operationally in the first 30 days after a Feb. 21 cyberattack forced the shutdown of Change Healthcare’s claims submission and payment systems, among more than 100 other applications. As of the week of March 18, parent company UnitedHealth Group had restored Change Healthcare’s payment platform and was reporting progress in…
David Johnson: GoFundMe helps some pay for healthcare, but it’s an awful solution
During the chaotic runup to the 2020 elections, President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s vacated seat. On Sept. 26, 2020, Trump held a White House Rose Garden ceremony to celebrate Coney Barrett’s nomination. It became a COVID-19 super-spreader event. At least 11 of the attendees contracted COVID. They included…