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 [...]
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, [...]
