Medicare & Medicaid
Consumers face steep rate hikes next year. Some will be forced to make a difficult choice: pay a higher price to keep their plans -- and doctors -- or switch plans to save money but risk losing their doctors.
The agency is distributing close to $6 billion in uncompensated care payments over the next fiscal year, a decrease of about $400 million.
Medicare beneficiaries in certain Iowa and Illinois counties will have more options come the next open enrollment period.
The federal government will punish more than half of the nation's hospitals -- a total of 2,597 -- for excess readmissions by withholding more than half a billion dollars in Medicare payments over the next year, records released Tuesday show.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will extend and expand a temporary moratorium on provider enrollment in six states meant to combat fraud, and at the same time, has created a new related demonstration project to allow for certain exceptions to the moratoria and heightened screening requirements for new providers, the agency announced Monday.
Hospitals cannot simply throw technology at the new payment model. Instead, thriving under MACRA will take leadership and analytical thinking, IT expert says.
Experts estimate that about half of all people turning 65 today will need daily help as they age, either at home or in nursing homes. Such long-term care will cost an average of about $91,000 for men and double that for women, because they live longer.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a number of payment and policy changes last week, addressing Medicare inpatient rehabilitation facilities, hospice benefit and skilled nursing facilities.
Despite the high cost of specialty drugs driving up expenditures, Medicare Part D prescription drug plan premiums are projected to rise by only about $1.50 over the average premium last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Friday.
Hospital overpaid physicians and rewarded them based on their referral of patients to the facility, the Department of Justice said.