MedPAC Recommends Changes in Medicare Short Stay Policies
The independent agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues has recommended that Congress call on Medicare to revise its policies governing short hospital stays for Medicare patients. At its March 5 meeting in Washington, D.C., staff of the Medicare [...]
Safety-Net Hospitals Struggle With Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing
Safety-net hospitals are more likely than others to fare poorly under Medicare’s value-based purchasing program. Or so concludes a new study published in the journal Health Affairs. Researchers examined the impact of the addition of patient mortality measures to the [...]
States Turning More to Providers to Fund Medicaid
States are relying more on provider taxes and other sources to raise their share of Medicaid funding, a new study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found. According to the GAO, state use of such funding rose 21 [...]
NAUH Endorses Bill to Improve Medicare Readmissions Reduction Program
The National Association of Urban Hospitals has endorsed a new bill to add risk adjustment to Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program. The Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Act, sponsored in the Senate (S. 688) by senators Rob [...]
Medicare Unveils New ACO Program
The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is launching a new accountable care organization (ACO) model through which providers can join together to serve Medicare patients. The “Next Generation ACO” seeks to build on the experience, insight, and feedback [...]
Congress to Consider Adding Risk Adjustment to Medicare Readmissions Program
A new bill introduced in Congress this week would require Medicare to consider the social determinants of health of the patients individual hospitals serve as part of its hospital readmissions reduction program. The Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmissions [...]
MedPAC Looks at Short-Stay Issues
The agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues is preparing to suggest changes in how Medicare approaches paying for short hospital stays. At last week’s meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), commissioners received a staff presentation on [...]
MACPAC Looks at Medicaid, CHIP Issues
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), the independent, non-partisan federal agency that advises Congress on the Medicaid and CHIP programs, met in Washington, D.C. recently to examine a number of issues under its purview. During two days [...]
HHS Inspector General Outlines 2015 Oversight Agenda
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has presented its oversight priorities for 2015. Those priorities include the health insurance marketplace, including whether the right people are getting benefits and consumers’ personal information [...]
Insurance Expansion Won’t Hurt Access to Primary Care, Study Finds
Fears that significant increases in the numbers of Americans with health insurance as a result of Affordable Care Act policies would overwhelm the health care system and lead to access to care problems are unfounded, according to a new Commonwealth [...]
