Here are 14 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past week, starting with the most recent.
1. CMS selected that it has selected 20 new organizations to participate in its Community Care Transitions Program.
2. CMS announced that Medicare incentive payments for meaningful use of electronic health records will undergo a 2 percent cut under sequestration.
3. Sequestration's 2 percent cuts to Medicare should not hinder the growth of for-profit hospital chains, according to reports from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Moody's Investors Service, but non-profit hospitals will likely see more challenges.
4. Most hospitals and hospital associations have advocated for the expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because it would help boost revenues in a time when uncompensated care continues to grow. But some new findings suggested Medicaid expansion could actually hurt some hospitals' bottom lines, particularly in New Hampshire.
5. Many health systems behind CMS' 32 Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations wrote to CMS, disagreeing with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's approach to quality measurement and demanding changes to the Pioneer program.
6. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told him that Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's plan to expand Medicaid would not meet eligibility requirements for increased federal funding.
7. Sharon (Conn.) Hospital CEO Kimberly Lumia spoke out against Gov. Dannel Malloy (D), who plans to convert a provider tax for Medicaid funds established last year into a straight tax.
8. The Indiana Senate has unanimously approved a bill that requires the Indiana Medicaid program to pay home health agencies, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers for telehealth services.
9. Although Virginia passed a budget recently that opens an avenue for lawmakers to discuss the option of expanding the state's Medicaid program, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirming he would make no decision on the matter in his tenure, which ends this year.
10. House Republicans vowed not to force hospitals to pay for the party's plan to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth rate, an annual source of legislative ire that would drastically cut physician pay that Congress has overridden every year since 2003.
11. A study in Health Affairs found hospice care can yield significant cost savings to Medicare, even for patients enrolled one to seven days before death.
12. CMS extended, through October 2013, the Medicare-Dependent Hospital Program for rural hospitals, as well as payment increases to low-volume hospitals prescribed by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
13. The Government Accountability Office said CMS overpaid private Medicare Advantage plans by at least $3.2 billion from 2010 through 2012.
14. The National Commission on Physician Payment Reform, a panel of physicians and healthcare experts assembled by the Society of General Internal Medicine, made bold recommendations to fix Medicare's sustainable growth rate by saving money through ending the increased payments hospitals receive for outpatient services and incorporating quality metrics in all physician reimbursement within five years.
1. CMS selected that it has selected 20 new organizations to participate in its Community Care Transitions Program.
2. CMS announced that Medicare incentive payments for meaningful use of electronic health records will undergo a 2 percent cut under sequestration.
3. Sequestration's 2 percent cuts to Medicare should not hinder the growth of for-profit hospital chains, according to reports from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Moody's Investors Service, but non-profit hospitals will likely see more challenges.
4. Most hospitals and hospital associations have advocated for the expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because it would help boost revenues in a time when uncompensated care continues to grow. But some new findings suggested Medicaid expansion could actually hurt some hospitals' bottom lines, particularly in New Hampshire.
5. Many health systems behind CMS' 32 Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations wrote to CMS, disagreeing with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's approach to quality measurement and demanding changes to the Pioneer program.
6. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told him that Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's plan to expand Medicaid would not meet eligibility requirements for increased federal funding.
7. Sharon (Conn.) Hospital CEO Kimberly Lumia spoke out against Gov. Dannel Malloy (D), who plans to convert a provider tax for Medicaid funds established last year into a straight tax.
8. The Indiana Senate has unanimously approved a bill that requires the Indiana Medicaid program to pay home health agencies, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers for telehealth services.
9. Although Virginia passed a budget recently that opens an avenue for lawmakers to discuss the option of expanding the state's Medicaid program, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirming he would make no decision on the matter in his tenure, which ends this year.
10. House Republicans vowed not to force hospitals to pay for the party's plan to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth rate, an annual source of legislative ire that would drastically cut physician pay that Congress has overridden every year since 2003.
11. A study in Health Affairs found hospice care can yield significant cost savings to Medicare, even for patients enrolled one to seven days before death.
12. CMS extended, through October 2013, the Medicare-Dependent Hospital Program for rural hospitals, as well as payment increases to low-volume hospitals prescribed by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
13. The Government Accountability Office said CMS overpaid private Medicare Advantage plans by at least $3.2 billion from 2010 through 2012.
14. The National Commission on Physician Payment Reform, a panel of physicians and healthcare experts assembled by the Society of General Internal Medicine, made bold recommendations to fix Medicare's sustainable growth rate by saving money through ending the increased payments hospitals receive for outpatient services and incorporating quality metrics in all physician reimbursement within five years.
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