Readmissions and Quality: Are They Related?
A new study casts doubt on a major principle underlying a good deal of recent federal health care policy. That principle holds that hospitals that have lower rates of 30-day readmissions of Medicare patients provide better, more economical care than [...]
Translating Insurance Into Care
While the Affordable Care Act is enabling millions of Americans to obtain health insurance – many of them for the first time – many of the newly insured do not understand how their insurance works or how to use it [...]
Protect Hospitals From Medicare DSH Cuts, NAUH Asks Congress
Protect private safety-net hospitals from Medicare DSH cuts by delaying those cuts, the National Association of Urban Hospitals asked Congress yesterday. In a message to every member of Congress, NAUH observed that the Affordable Care Act-mandated requirement to reduce Medicare [...]
Medicare Payment Rule FY 2015: Inpatient Rates to Rise 1.4 Percent
Medicare inpatient rates will increase 1.4 percent in FY 2015. But the already-shrinking Medicare disproportionate share (Medicare DSH) pool will be $900 million smaller than proposed in April. These and other payment policies were included in the recently unveiled Medicare [...]
GAO Questions State Medicaid Financing
States are now financing more than a quarter of their share of Medicaid expenditures with money from sources other than state general funds, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the GAO, 26 percent [...]
IOM Releases Graduate Medical Education Report
‘’…there is an unquestionable imperative to assess and optimize the effectiveness of the public’s investment in GME (graduate medical education).” So says the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its new report Graduate Medical Education That Meets the Nation’s Health Needs. [...]
Group to Assess Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Care
The National Quality Forum (NQF) will perform a “robust trial” to assess the role and impact of sociodemographic factors on health care outcomes. In a news release, the NQF announced that Sociodemographic factors can be socioeconomic, e.g., income, education, and [...]
Congressman Rallies Support for Medicare Readmissions Bill
Congressman James Renacci has put out a call to his fellow House members to support H.R. 4188, the Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmissions Program Act. The bill seeks to improve Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program, which penalizes hospitals [...]
GAO Compares Medicaid, Private Insurance Rates
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has completed a new study that compares how physicians are paid by Medicaid (both fee-for-service (FFS) and managed care plans) and private insurers. Looking at payments for 26 different physician evaluation and management (E&M), [...]
CMS Seeks to Jump-Start Medicaid Innovation
A new federal program seeks to encourage states to work faster to find ways to improve care and improve the health of their Medicaid patients and to reduce health care costs through payment and service delivery reforms. The Center for [...]
