Feds Provide More Info on Short Stay Settlement Offer
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted more information about its offer to settle hospital appeals of Medicare denials of payments for short hospital stays. The offer, made last week, seeks to help CMS with an 18-month [...]
MedPAC Launches “New Voices”
The independent agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues has upgraded its tools for communicating with Congress and the health care community. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has launched a blog and a Twitter feed. According to MedPAC, [...]
Medicare Offers Hospitals a Deal
Faced with an 18-month backlog of hundreds of thousands of appeals on cases in which auditors say hospitals billed Medicare for inpatient services that should have been billed at outpatient rates, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is [...]
Medicaid Patients are High Users But Not Abusers of ER Services, Report Says
Medicaid patients use hospital emergency rooms more frequently than privately insured and uninsured patients but are not overusing or abusing ER services. So says the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) in a recent report that contradicts the [...]
Patient Satisfaction, Quality Not Necessarily Related
Patients who express satisfaction with the quality of the hospital care they received are not necessarily receiving high-quality care. Or so says a new study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The study found that many patients who expressed satisfaction [...]
Millions Eligible to Pursue Health Insurance Before Next Open Enrollment Period
Approximately seven million Americans will not need to wait until the next open enrollment period to take advantage of enhanced access to health insurance made possible through the Affordable Care Act. While the next open enrollment period does not begin [...]
Hospitals, Charitable Groups to Pay Insurance Premiums?
Hospitals and charitable groups such as the United Way are exploring the possibility of paying the health insurance premiums of uninsured patients who come through hospital doors. Such an approach would enhance access to care for the uninsured while helping [...]
Charity Care? Wait a Minute
Many hospitals are considering whether they should continue to provide charity care to people who were eligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies to purchase health insurance but chose instead to remain uninsured. The issue for many is whether the availability [...]
500,000 at Risk of Losing New Health Insurance
About 500,000 people newly insured through the Affordable Care Act may lose their health insurance at the end of September if they cannot prove their eligibility for that insurance. Most of the cases being reviewed involve whether the newly insured [...]
Clinics Jumping Into Medicaid
Across the country, many free clinics that have long served the uninsured are becoming Medicaid providers. Not to be confused with federally supported community health centers, these clinics have long been an important part of the health care safety net, [...]
