Medicare & Medicaid

While hospitals in Maryland have not brought down the state's total costs of care, the all-payer system seems promising enough to state and federal leaders under universal healthcare coverage.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will lift the rate it pays inpatient hospitals in 2016 by 0.9 percent, the agency announced Friday, as long as facilities participate in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program and demonstrate meaningful use through the use of electronic health records.

From 2010 to 2013, Paula Kluding concealed the true medical condition of Prairie View Hospice's patients in order to "pass" a Medicare audit and to fraudulently obtain money from Medicare, according to evidence presented at trial.

In addition to the payment change, CMS said it will begin penalizing skilled nursing facilities in 2018 that fail to report quality measures as part of the agency's shift towards value-based reimbursement.

As the programs turn 50, Medicare and Medicaid's long role in funding medical education is finding itself stretched thin by looming nursing and physician shortages.

The NOTICE Act would require hospitals to provide written notification to patients 24 hours after receiving observation care, explaining that they have not been admitted to the hospital, the reasons why and the potential financial implications.

Medicare Part D prescription drug plan premiums will hold flat at $32.50 a month in 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced on Wednesday, despite ballooning costs for the federal program.

The 25-bed Cochise Regional Hospital in Douglas, Arizona, is set to close at the end of July, after Medicare took the rare action of cutting off funding based on findings from several compliance and safety investigations.

U.S. healthcare spending is expected to grow by 5.8 percent through 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Tuesday, driven by the rise of expensive specialty drugs and higher insured rates under the Affordable Care Act.

At the same time, enrollment in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program is just under 72 million.