Policy and Legislation
A new federal regulatory proposal to ensure adequate insurance networks could help not-for-profit hospitals, Moody's said in a briefing released this week.
Take note, hospitals: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has recently announced modifications to the implementation of the controversial "2-Midnight" inpatient admissions policy, as well as releasing the preliminary federal disproportionate share hospital allotments for FY2014.
The number of people determined eligible for Medicaid since the launch of new insurance marketplaces is approaching 10 million, according to new data released from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The recent delay of the employer mandate for medium-sized businesses will harm not-for-profit hospitals because it postpones increased revenues from expanded coverage of previously uninsured patients and the subsequent reduction in bad debt and charity care it would bring, a Moody's report said.
Identifying an individual's health plan sounds pretty straightforward. Most hospitals have an eligibility system to verify a patient's coverage for a specific set of services from specific insurance companies. But as coverage expands and gets more complex, so do the pressures on hospitals.
Medicare accountable care organizations are having varying rates of success in addressing their patients' diabetes and heart disease, according to government data released Friday.
For the second time in two months, Congress has turned to an extension of Medicare sequestration as a funding mechanism -- a troubling new trend for Medicare providers.
Lawmakers took another step toward repealing the reviled sustainable growth rate formula that sets physician payment in the Medicare program, but they still haven't figured out how to pay for it.
As a healthcare consumer, am I most interested in short-term complications and readmission rates or am I interested in getting cured of whatever I have? The recent hullabaloo over narrow networks and whether a more expensive hospital is worth it or not seems to miss the bigger point.
Hospitals can take a deep breath, and rest easier for at least six months. CMS is delaying enforcement of its "two-midnight" policy until after Sept. 30.