Ways and Means Seeks to Cut Medicare Red Tape
The House Ways and Means Committee’s Health Subcommittee has launched a new initiative to attempt to improve the delivery of Medicare services and eliminate statutory and regulatory obstacles to more effective care delivery. The subcommittee describes its “Medicare Red Tape [...]
Behavioral Health Services in Medicaid Expansion States
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has performed a limited study of the utilization of Medicaid behavioral health services in Medicaid expansion states. The study, based on data from New York, Washington, Iowa, and West Virginia, found that the two most [...]
Congress Looks at 340B Program
Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee took a look at the 340B prescription drug discount program, which requires pharmaceutical companies to sell discounted drugs for outpatient use to hospitals that care for especially large numbers of low-income patients. [...]
Mortality Doesn’t Go Up When Readmissions Come Down
The emphasis in recent years on reducing hospital readmissions has not resulted in an increase in post-discharge deaths among Medicare patients. Or so concludes a new study published in JAMA. Looking at outcomes associated with Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program, [...]
Medicaid Enrollees: Access and Quality Are Good
Medicaid beneficiaries are generally satisfied with their access to care and the quality of care they receive. Or so reports a new study based on results of the federal Medicaid Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey for [...]
ACOs, APMs Proliferate
The number of accountable care organizations and alternative payment models is growing, as is the number of people served by such programs. According to a new study published on the Health Affairs Blog, there are more than 900 ACOs across [...]
HHS Needs to Do More on Physician Training
The federal government needs to do more to ensure an adequate supply of primary care physicians and their deployment in non-urban areas outside of the northeastern U.S. Or so concludes a new study performed by the U.S. Governor Accountability Office. [...]
NAUH Urges Senators to Vote “No” on Better Care Reconciliation Act
Citing provisions that would leave an additional 22 million people uninsured by 2026 and reduce federal investment in Medicaid-covered health care approximately $772 billion over the next decade, the National Association of Urban Hospitals has asked members of the Senate [...]
Elderly Patients Return to Hospitals After Observation Stay
More than one in five Medicare patients who have observation stays in the hospital return to that hospital within 30 days, according to a new study published in The BMJ. Among those returning to the hospital, 8.4 percent return to [...]
MedPAC Delivers Annual Report to Congress
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has issued its annual report and recommendations to Congress. The major issues addressed in the report include: implementing a unified payment system for post-acute care reforming Medicare payment for drugs under Part B redesigning the [...]
