Policy and Legislation
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday proposed a new rule intended to reduce overuse of antibiotics, implement comprehensive requirements for infection prevention and prohibit discrimination.
CMS is awarding $10 million over the next three years to organizations that will help clinicians transition to the new quality payment system outlined under MACRA.
While reforms tied to the Affordable Care Act have most healthcare providers focusing on quality and efficiency, financial experts say the dramatic change in business model is driving improvement in credit ratings.
Lonny Shavelson's practice will be focused on consulting not only with physicians whose patients request aid-in-dying, but also with patients themselves. Shavelson worries that patients may seek aid-in-dying because they are in pain. So first, he would like all his patients to be enrolled in hospice care.
The Food and Drug Administration removed an obstacle from of its "compassionate use" policy this month, eliminating some paperwork that physicians must do to obtain experimental drugs for some patients with immediately life-threatening illnesses.
Accountable care organizations in Medicare's Shared Savings program will now be held to regional spending benchmarks and not national ones, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday, responding to criticism that the earlier rules made it too difficult for strong-performing providers to see savings.
The state Senate this week rejected legislation that would have required medical practitioners to notify their patients if they were on probation for serious infractions.
In an effort to get or keep a good performance rating from the federal government, transplant centers have been labeling some patients "too sick to transplant" and dropping from the waitlist some who may been viable candidates, researchers found. In addition, despite removing more sick patients from the waiting list, one-year survival rates for patients who received transplants didn't improve.
If you're one of the nearly 44 million Americans estimated to have a mental health condition, the 2010 health law is supposed to help you get treatment. Yet actually getting that help depends, new research suggests, on who you are and, to an extent, on your racial background. While more people overall are getting mental health care, it's still harder to do if you are not white.
In total spending, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday, the bill would increase spending by $50 million over four years beginning in 2017, but spending would end up decreasing by $14 million through 2026, the CBO said.