New Study Questions 30-Day Readmissions as Measure of Hospital Quality
Hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge may not be a good way of judging the quality of care hospitals provide, a new study suggests. Seven days may be more like it. According to a new study published in the [...]
Post-Reform “Churn” Less Than Expected
When the Affordable Care Act passed, observers were worried about health insurance “churn”: people moving from one health insurer to another at frequent intervals. But early indications are that this churn, while real and a challenge, is not nearly as [...]
Foundation Looks at Care for High-Need, High-Cost Patients
In a new issue brief, the Commonwealth Fund has identified what it views to be six key elements for improving care for high-need, high-cost patients – those who consume disproportionate amounts of health care. They are: Promote value-based payments Improve [...]
MACPAC Looks at Medicaid DSH
With Medicaid disproportionate share payments (Medicaid DSH) facing future reductions, the agency charged with advising Congress on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance payment and access matters is considering what changes the federal supplemental Medicaid payment program might need. At a [...]
MACPAC Meets
The federal agency responsible for advising Congress on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program payment and access issues met last week in Washington, D.C. According to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, The initial sessions of MACPAC’s September [...]
Medicare Readmissions Down Almost Everywhere
Hospitals in 49 of the 50 states have reduced their Medicare readmissions since the federal health care program introduced its readmissions reduction program in 2010. Only hospitals in Vermont have failed to cut readmissions. Nationally, readmissions fell more than five [...]
Senate May Tackle Socio-economic Risk Adjustment
With a House bill to adjust Medicare payment penalties based upon the socio-economic challenges posed by the patients some hospitals serve folded into a House bill that passed in June, the Senate may take up this issue during its fall [...]
NAUH Urges Congress to Assist With Medicare Outpatient Regulation
Last year Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act, which mandated site-neutral Medicare outpatient payments. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a new regulation implementing this policy that NAUH believes will detract from the ability of private safety-net [...]
Federal Medicaid Per Capita Spending Limits?
As they have in the past, some members of Congress have suggested of late that Medicaid might benefit from being transformed into a program with limited spending per capita: that is, such an approach would limit the amount of money [...]
New ACO Model Targets Social Determinants of Health
The federal government is altering a previously announced accountable care organization model to help it target the social determinants of health of the patients it serves. The Accountable Health Communities model, launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [...]
