MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. Among the issues on MedPAC’s December agenda that were of special interest to private safety-net hospitals were: Assessing payment adequacy and updating [...]
Hospital Groups Critical of CMS 340B Proposal
The federal government should not survey providers to determine their costs for drugs covered by the section 340B prescription drug discount program, hospitals and hospital groups have told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Their comments came in response [...]
Hospitals Sue Over Hospital Price Transparency Requirement
The federal government should be prohibited from implementing its new price transparency requirement for hospitals, a group of hospital trade groups and health systems has declared in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The requirement [...]
MedPAC to Meet Tomorrow
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission meets this Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C. MedPAC’s December agenda is dominated by Medicare payment issues: how much Medicare should pay for different types of services in calendar year 2021 and FY 2021. The [...]
High-Deductible Plans Driving Rise in Hospital Bad Debt
Hospital bad debt rose in 2018 after several years of decline, and according to Moody’s, high-deductible health insurance is one of the major drivers of that increase. According to the bond rating agency, non-profit hospitals are seeing growing amounts of [...]
Back Off 340B Data Collection, NASH Tells CMS
The federal government should not impose a new, major data reporting requirement on 340B-eligible hospitals to support the implementation of a new policy that federal courts twice have rejected, NASH told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week. [...]
Administration Shares Regulatory Priorities for 2020
The Trump administration’s health care regulatory priorities for 2020 have been outlined by the Office of Management and Budget in a newly released “Statement of Regulatory Priorities for Fiscal Year 2020.” The statement, an annual OMB document, organizes the priorities [...]
Medicaid DSH Cut Delayed
Cuts in Medicaid DSH payments to hospitals will be delayed for another month after Congress passed, and the president signed, a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through December 20. A cut in federal Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) [...]
Improper Medicare Payments Down in FY 2019
The amount of improper Medicare payments made by the federal government fell $7 billion in federal fiscal year 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports. FY 2019 marked the third consecutive year that improper fee-for-service payments have fallen. [...]
Improper Medicaid, CHIP Payments on the Rise
The rate at which Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program made improper payments rose considerably in federal fiscal year 2019. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Medicaid improper payment rate in FY 2019 was 14.9 [...]
