Accounting & Financial Management

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made official on Friday what many had expected: it is dropping its efforts to implement the CLASS Act.

The total cost for children’s hospital stays in 2009 was $33.6 billion, or about 9 percent of overall hospital costs, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

In early July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued proposed changes that would update payment policies and rates for physicians, dialysis facilities and services to Medicare beneficiaries in hospital outpatient departments and decrease Medicare payments to home health agencies.

Under the Affordable Care Act, the process surrounding electronic funds transfers and electronic healthcare payment and remittance advice transactions is scheduled to be streamlined by July 2012.

Over the last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued proposed changes that will update payment policies and rates for physicians, dialysis facilities and for services to Medicare beneficiaries in hospital outpatient departments and decrease Medicare payments to home health agencies.

Rather than focusing on new construction, health systems are renovating or expanding, according to a survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.

Rather than focusing on new construction, health systems are renovating or expanding with an eye toward IT advancement and green construction, according to a survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.

States can apply for a second round of grant funding to help implement health insurance exchanges mandated under the Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on Thursday.