Bill Would Modify Medicare Readmissions Program
New legislation introduced in Congress would add a risk adjustment component to Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program. Under H.R. 4188, the Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmission Program Act, hospitals’ performance in preventing Medicare readmissions would be risk-adjusted for [...]
NAUH Urges Senate to Protect Urban Safety-Net Hospitals
With the Senate Finance Committee looking for ways to pay for a permanent solution to the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) challenge, the National Association of Urban Hospitals has asked the committee’s members to reject any proposal to pay [...]
Bill Would Clarify Medicare’s “Two Midnight Rule”
A new bill introduced in the Senate last week would attempt to clarify Medicare’s so-called two-midnight rule for classifying hospital stays as inpatient stays or observation status and resolve the controversy surrounding the much-discussed rule. The Two-Midnight Rule Coordination and [...]
Increase Use of Value-Based Purchasing, HHS Told
A study performed for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls for greater use of value-based purchasing in federal health care reimbursement policy. The study, performed by the RAND Corporation, recommends developing a national value-based purchasing strategy; developing [...]
President Presents Proposed FY 2015 Budget
Yesterday the Obama administration unveiled its proposed FY 2015 federal budget. The spending plan addresses a number of key matters for private safety-net hospitals, including proposed cuts in Medicare bad debt reimbursement, graduate medical education payments, market basket updates for [...]
CMS Offers Additional Guidance on “Two-Midnight Rule”
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued additional information about its plans for implementing the so-called Medicare two-midnight rule. The rule, which officially took effect last August, has been the subject of controversy, questions, and clarifications ever [...]
States Face Challenges in Outside-the-Box Medicaid Expansion
For most states expanding their Medicaid program in response to the opportunity afforded by the Affordable Care Act, expansion has been fairly straightforward: they simply let more people into their existing Medicaid programs. But several states – Arkansas, Iowa, and [...]
Enthusiasm Waning for Permanent Medicare Doc Fix
While most health care interests and members of Congress want to see a permanent end to the annual Medicare “doc fix” problem, it appears increasingly likely that the next “fix” will be yet another short-term patch. The obstacle? How to [...]
New Approaches to Serving Dual Eligibles Set to Launch
Provisions in the Affordable Care Act that encourage states to take new approaches to serving their dually eligible residents – low-income seniors eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid – will soon translate into new state programs. Massachusetts has already launched [...]
Some Hospitals Stand to Lose Medicaid Expansion, DSH Money
When the Supreme Court made Medicaid expansion optional rather than mandatory for states, its decision affected the delicate balance of one aspect of the Affordable Care Act. Hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients receive special supplemental [...]
