Are Employers Rethinking High-Deductible Plans?
Aug. 7—Employers that provide insurance for their workers are expressing an unusual degree of reluctance about high-deductible health plans (HDHPs).
IPPS Rule Includes Pay Bump, Reporting Simplification
Aug. 6—More than 3,000 hospitals will receive an average increase of nearly 3 percent in their Medicare inpatient payment rates—along with a slew of policy changes—under a recently issued final rule.
Aug. 6-10: As Navigator Deadline Approaches, Individual-Insurance Market Strengthens
Aug. 2—As the Trump administration prepares to accept the latest round of navigator applications this week, the individual health insurance market appears to be strengthening.
Medicare Offers $1 Billion Increase, Policy Changes for Post-Acute Providers
Aug. 1—Post-acute care providers will see more than a $1 billion pay boost for FY19—along with a range of policy changes—as described in annual final rules issued by Medicare this week.
Medicare Proposes $760 Million 2019 Hospital Cut
July 27—A range of major hospital policy changes includes a $760 million cut as part of the 2019 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rule.
Number of MSSP ACOs and Shared-Savings Characteristics
The number of ACOs participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program increased at a faster rate from 2013 to 2018 than did the number of participants that achieved shared savings in the first four years of the program.
Home Is Where the Hospital Is
The hospital-at-home model provides a potential means of reducing total costs of care and improving outcomes, but it would present traditional acute care hospitals with a strategic challenge.
Health System-Owned Physician Practices: Are Any Losses Acceptable?
Health systems that own physician practices should fully address losses those practices incur and take steps to remediate the issues underlying those losses.
Medicare Advantage for More: A Pragmatic Alternative to Medicare for All
An expansion of Medicare Advantage presents an opportunity for the U.S. to test the waters of a single-payer system.
July 30-Aug. 3: As CMS Offers MIPS Review, Physicians Urge Its Preservation
July 26—Members of Congress and some physician leaders urged the continuation of Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System amid growing calls for its elimination. However, many agreed the system needs changes.