Policy and Legislation
The New Jersey Hospital Association is expanding an innovative "gainsharing" pilot program designed to improve healthcare efficiency and reduce costs by promoting better coordination and collaboration among New Jersey hospitals and physicians.
Medicare patients can anticipate paying considerably less for their diabetes and other products starting in July when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expands its competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME) and mail-order program but the DME industry continues to point out problems with the program.
CMS is hosting the next semi-annual meeting of the Advisory Panel on Hospital Outpatient Payment for 2013 on March 11, 2013.
Despite improvements, Medicare has once again been placed on the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list -- a designation the program has held since 1990.
Possible cuts in Medicare funding for graduate medical education (GME) that could start as soon as next month come at a critical time when the industry is trying to find solutions to a physician shortage that promises to accelerate through 2020.
When Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that "the biggest obstacles to balancing the budget are programs where spending is already locked in," he pulled no punches and pointed directly at Medicare.
It should be no surprise that President Barack Obama launched into the intertwined matters of sequestration and deficit reduction -- with a focus on how they impact healthcare -- before addressing other sectors of the U.S. economy during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Rural hospitals are girding for harsh impacts from a 2 percent decrease in Medicare reimbursements under federal spending sequestration, set to take effect in March, by taking advantage of how they already operate, a new report suggests.
Last year, through healthcare fraud judgments, settlements and other proceedings, the federal government recovered $4.2 billion the Justice and Health and Human Services departments announced on Monday.
States that continue to resist the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are finding themselves in a tougher and tougher spot. The Medicaid expansion is an even tougher issue. From where I sit, states that refuse to accept the expansion of federally funded Medicaid are essentially putting through an increase in their state minimum wage.