Policy and Legislation
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Aug. 7 released an interim final rule for making healthcare claim payments electronically and describing adjustments to claim payments. The department expects this next step in the adoption of operating rules to save up to $9 billion over the next 10 years.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill Monday designed to control the state's healthcare costs. Included in the legislation is an overhaul of the medical liability system, which proponents say will decrease the cost of defensive medicine.
A trio of conservative health economists say that while the 2010 federal health law aims to slow health spending through programs such as value-based purchasing and bundled payments, it fails to fundamentally alter the healthcare financing system.
Home health agencies inappropriately paid $5 million for home health claims in 2010, found the Office of Inspector General in an examination of home health agencies' billing practices.
In fiscal year 2013, inpatient hospital payments will be increasing by 2.3 percent ($2.5 billion) under the final rule for the hospital inpatient and long-term care hospital prospective payment systems (PPS). The final rule was issued Wednesday night by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
A letter bearing the Friends of the AHRQ seal and the signatures of 139 organizations including the AAFP, illustrated the distress the bill has promoted within the minds and hearts of primary care advocates and initiates the nation over.
The National Quality Forum Board of Directors has endorsed 19 measures related to pulmonary conditions, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia.
As congressional lawmakers reached an agreement Tuesday that would avoid a government shut down before the presidential election, the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis estimating the cost of alternative policies to modify the physician payment rate set by the sustainable growth rate.
The Massachusetts Legislature Tuesday passed the next phase of its ongoing attempt to reform the healthcare system: sweeping cost control legislation.
The newest monthly Physician Wellbeing Index from online medical learning network QuantiaMD shows that 26 percent of primary care physicians report poor financial health.