MedPAC Comments on Proposed Medicare Outpatient Payment Rule
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has weighed in with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on its proposed regulation governing the 2018 hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center payment systems and quality reporting programs. Among the [...]
Overutilization of ERs May Not be as Great as Perceived
Far fewer hospital emergency room visits are for medical problems better addressed in other settings, according to a new study. In a review of six years worth of data encompassing 424 million ER visits, researchers found that only 3.3 percent [...]
Leave 340B Alone, CMS Advisory Group Says
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should not significantly reduce Medicare payments for some prescription drugs. Or so says one of CMS’s own advisory panels. The agency’s Advisory Panel on Outpatient Prospective Payment reached this conclusion after listening to [...]
NAUH Comments on Proposed Cut of Medicaid DSH Payments
NAUH has expressed its opposition to a proposed change in how the federal government allocates Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) funding to states. In a formal comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which proposed the change [...]
NAUH Asks House to Block S-10 Data in Medicare DSH Calculation
In response to a request from the House Ways and Means Committee’s Health Subcommittee for suggestions from stakeholders on ways to improve the delivery of Medicare services and eliminate statutory and regulatory obstacles to more effective care delivery, NAUH has [...]
NAUH Urges Ways and Means to Block 340B Changes
In response to a request from the House Ways and Means Committee’s Health Subcommittee for suggestions from stakeholders on ways to improve the delivery of Medicare services and eliminate statutory and regulatory obstacles to more effective care delivery, NAUH has [...]
Improvements Inspired by Readmissions Reduction Program Level Off
After major improvements during the early years of Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program, the program is no longer showing significant new gains. While Medicare readmissions have fallen from 21.5 percent to 17.8 percent since 2007, there has been very little [...]
Serving High-Risk Patients Leads to VPB Penalties
Practices that served more socially high-risk patients had lower quality and lower costs, and practices that served more medically high-risk patients had lower quality and higher costs. These patterns were associated with fewer bonuses and more penalties for high-risk practices. [...]
ACA Reduced Disparities in Access to Care
The Affordable Care Act has reduced socioeconomic disparities in access to health care in the U.S. According to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, Health care access for people in lower socioeconomic strata improved in both states [...]
CMS Takes First Steps Toward Medicaid DSH Cuts
Federal funds allocated to states to make Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH) payments would be reduced beginning in FY 2018 under a new rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The Medicaid DSH cuts, mandated [...]
