Number of Uninsured Children on the Rise
The number of children insured by Medicaid and CHIP has fallen by more than one million over the past two years after reaching an all-time low (by percentage) in 2016. Why? According to the New York Times, Some state and [...]
Court Upholds Delay of Medicare Site-Neutral Payment Cut
Medicare cannot proceed with its plan to pay for outpatient care on a site-neutral basis while it appeals a court ruling rejecting that policy, a federal court has ruled. A federal judge found that Medicare has not articulated an adequate [...]
Grassley Questions Aspects of Graduate Medical Education
Graduate medical education is the subject of inquiry in a recent letter from Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. In his letter to Secretary Azar, Senator Grassley asks for information about how [...]
Immigrants Intimidated by New Public Charge Guidelines?
Immigrants served by community health centers appear less inclined than in the past to seek public aid to help them with their medical problems. And community health center staff believes this is the result of confusion and fear as a [...]
No Primary Doc Shortage for Medicare Patients – at Least Not Yet
Medicare patients currently have adequate access to primary care physicians, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. But that could change in the near future, MedPAC warns. Amid long-term concerns about whether there are enough primary care doctors, a new [...]
Most Hospitals Hit With Medicare Readmissions Penalties
Nearly 2600 hospitals will be penalized by Medicare in FY 2020 for excessive patients readmissions under Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In all, 83 percent of hospitals covered by the program [...]
MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. Among issues on MedPAC’s October agenda of potential interest to private safety-net hospitals were: restructuring Medicare Part D updates to the [...]
NASH Comments on Proposed Medicare Outpatient Payment Regulation (part 4 of 4)
The National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals has submitted extensive comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services about its proposed changes in the Medicare outpatient prospective payment system for 2020. In its letter to CMS, NASH focused on four [...]
NASH Comments on Proposed Medicare Outpatient Payment Regulation (part 3 of 4)
The National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals has submitted extensive comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services about its proposed changes in the Medicare outpatient prospective payment system for 2020. In its letter to CMS, NASH focuses on four [...]
New in Medicaid Medical Transportation: Uber and Lyft
State Medicaid programs focused on ensuring that beneficiaries keep their doctor appointments are increasingly looking to ride-sharing services to supplement the providers already participating in their medical transportation programs. Today, Lyft is working with approximately 35 state Medicaid programs while [...]
