Policy and Legislation
New mandatory bundled payments for cardiac care and rehabilitation will qualify for incentive payments under MACRA's new alternative payment model starting in 2018, according to CMS.
The Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals has come out in opposition to Question 4 on Massachusetts' November ballot, which seeks to legalize marijuana in the Commonwealth.
In a continuing dialog with providers on MACRA, Andy Slavitt addressed the American Osteopathic Association at their annual meeting Friday, once again hinting at a possible delay in implementation so that providers, especially smaller practices, have time to prepare.
Arizona is again allowing enrollment in the state's Children's Health Insurance Program known as KidsCare, six years after enrollment was frozen, according to an announcement Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is in the spotlight this week as the man Donald Trump has picked to be his running mate. Pence's decisions about health and health care in Indiana have drawn attention from within and outside the state. His record could be important in November, because Trump doesn't have a legislative record at all.
Nineteen states have yet to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, and a new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows just how much enrollment would increase if they did: 7.8 to 8.8 million, while the number of uninsured would decline between 4.1 and 5 million, the research found.
Pathologists at a dozen hospitals in the state are part of a pilot project -- the first of its kind in the United States -- in which they are reporting cancer diagnoses in close to real-time to the California Cancer Registry. And they are using standardized electronic forms to make their reporting more consistent and accurate.
Covered California, the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange, said Tuesday that its premiums will balloon by a statewide average of 13.2 percent next year -- more than triple the roughly 4 percent increases in each of the previous two years.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report to Congress wherein it stated that HIPAA serves traditional healthcare well and continues to support national priorities for interoperable health information with its media-neutral privacy rule, but that the scope of HIPAA is limited.
If the law doesn't become too complicated, the CMS chief said it will lead to better care and happier doctors.