By Seema Verma – Healthcare is taking up an increasing share of the U.S. economy, and by 2026 the CMS Office of the Actuary projects that one in every five dollars spent in America will be spent on healthcare.
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By Robert F. Bacon – The provider community has been begging for documentation reform for over 20 years, and there is no question that simplifying the complex requirements of clinical documentation is necessary.
By Phil Galewitz – Accountable care organizations were among the key initiatives of the Affordable Care Act, designed to help control soaring Medicare costs. ACOs were expected to save the government nearly $5 billion by 2019, according to the CBO.
CMS is advancing the MAQI Demonstration, which, when approved and adopted, would waive MIPS requirements for clinicians who participate sufficiently in certain Medicare Advantage plans that involve taking on risk.
CMS proposed significant changes to the Home Health Prospective Payment System to strengthen and modernize Medicare, drive value, and focus on individual patient needs rather than volume of care.
CMS issued proposed updates to Medicare payment policies and rates under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System, as well as a Request for Information to solicit feedback on ways to better achieve interoperability.
By Nathaniel M. Lacktman – The Office of Inspector General at the Department of HHS just published a new report on OIG’s review of Medicare payments for telehealth services. The objective of the OIG review was to determine whether or not CMS paid practitioners for telehealth services that met Medicare requirements.
By Susan Jaffe – Air conditioners for people with asthma, healthy groceries, rides to medical appointments and home-delivered meals may be among the new benefits added to Medicare Advantage coverage when new federal rules take effect next year.
By Jay Hancock – Saturdays at Mercy Medical Center used to be perversely lucrative. The dialysis clinic across the street was closed on weekends. That meant the downtown Baltimore hospital would see patients with failing kidneys who should have gone to the dialysis center.