States Exploring Deviations from ACA Standards
A number of states are considering pursuing waivers from selected requirements of the Affordable Care Act in the name of health care innovation. Section 1332 of the 2010 health care reform law permits states, with federal approval, to implement different [...]
More Evidence Supports Shortcomings of Medicare Readmissions Penalties
A new study supports the belief that Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program is unfair to hospitals that serve especially large numbers of low-income patients. A study published in the journal Surgery found that hospitals that serve larger numbers of minority [...]
Feds to Target Urban Areas for Health Insurance Open Enrollment
As part of a campaign to encourage more Americans to obtain health insurance during the open enrollment period of the federal insurance marketplace and state marketplaces, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has identified 15 large urban markets where [...]
Hospital Bad Debt Up in Ohio
While uncompensated care is down, bad debt is up at Ohio hospitals. According to a new report from the Ohio Hospital Association, hospital bad debt rose in that state from $1.04 billion in FY 2013, when the state had not [...]
Medicaid Expansion Improved Hospital Finances
Hospitals in states that expanded their Medicaid programs as provided for in the Affordable Care Act experienced increased Medicaid revenue, reduced uncompensated care costs, and higher profit margins compared to hospitals in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs. [...]
Medicare’s Primary Care Demonstration Shows Promise
Medicare’s Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative produced encouraging results during its second year: 95 percent of the participating medical practices met their quality requirements and four out of the seven participating regions generated nearly $58 million in savings and will share [...]
Academies Continues Work on Socio-Economic Risk Adjustment
In the latest aspect of its research on socio-economic status for the purpose of its application to Medicare quality measurement and payment programs, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has taken a look at the data needed to [...]
A New Approach to Serving High-Cost, High-Need, High-Risk Medicaid Patients
A partnership consisting of a county government, a public hospital, a county-run Medicaid managed care plan, and a federally qualified health center, Hennepin Health is an accountable care organization that seeks to serve high-cost, high-need, high-risk Medicaid patients in the [...]
Perspective on Medicaid
A new report looks at how Medicaid has affected the health and health care of people throughout the country. The Commonwealth Fund report “Understanding the Value of Medicaid” examines the impact of the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid and [...]
MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. During two days of meetings, MedPAC commissioners addressed the following issues: accountable care organizations Part B drug payment policies behavioral health care health care reform quality measures measures of [...]
