MedPAC Calls for Equalization of Some Post-Acute-Care Payments
The agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment policies has voted to recommend that Medicare equalize payments to skilled nursing facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. At a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) concluded that [...]
MedPAC Looks at Short Hospital Stays
The independent agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues is examining one of the more controversial of those payment issues: Medicare payments for short hospital stays. At its recent public meeting in Washington, D.C., members of the Medicare Payment [...]
Medicare Seeks to Put Pedal to the Metal on Quality-Related Payments and Care
The federal government has unveiled its intention to pursue a significant increase in the proportion of Medicare services for which it pays based on the quality of care delivered than the quantity of care provided. The plan was announced on [...]
MedPAC Mulls Payment Per Beneficiary for Primary Care
At a recent meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), commission members discussed the inadequacy of Medicare payments to providers for primary care and considered a proposal to recommend to Congress that primary care physicians receive a “per beneficiary” [...]
Medicaid “Pay Bump” Worked, New Study Suggests
A federally mandated increase in Medicaid payments for primary care services appears to have achieved its goal of improving access to care for Medicaid recipients. The increase, part of the Affordable Care Act, called for raising payments for Medicaid primary [...]
Medicare Giveth and Medicare Taketh Away
With a growing number of Medicare programs basing portions of future reimbursement on meeting specific performance metrics, hospitals are finding that they need a scorecard to keep track of their successes and failures. Medicare’s value-based purchasing program, for example, is [...]
Millions Live in ACA Coverage Gap
Nearly four million people who were supposed to be helped to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act remain uninsured today because they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to qualify for the reform law’s health [...]
NAUH Calls for More Medical Residency Slots
In December, the House Energy and Commerce Committee invited stakeholders to submit comments on Medicare’s graduate medical education (GME) program. The National Association of Urban Hospitals has responded with a letter that addresses several of the issues the committee highlighted, [...]
Will High Court Help Pave the Way to Higher Medicaid Payments?
In a case that could have nation-wide implications for health care providers, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a lower court decision that ordered the state of Idaho to raise Medicaid payments to providers serving the developmentally [...]
NAUH Comments on Medicare Bill
Late last year, Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Health Subcommittee, released his “Hospital Improvement for Payment Act of 2014.” At the time, Rep. Brady invited comment on his Medicare proposal, which was widely [...]
