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Policy and Legislation

By Stephanie Bouchard | 11:47 am | August 10, 2011
Primary care doctors are continuing to ramp up the pressure on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services over how Medicare's physician payment rates are set. The latest volley is a suit filed by a group of primary care physicians from Georgia claiming CMS and HHS are violating federal laws by relying on the RUC.
By Stephanie Bouchard | 10:05 am | August 09, 2011
The Physician Group Practice (PGP) demonstration project championed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has resulted in quality improvements and Medicare savings and resulted in $110 million in incentive payments CMS announced Monday.
By Stephanie Bouchard | 05:18 pm | August 08, 2011
Seeking to ward off more funding cuts in FY 2012, the National Association of Community Health Centers released a report Monday detailing why community health centers are a good deal.
By Stephanie Bouchard | 10:41 am | August 08, 2011
Medicare payments to hospices will see a 2.5 percent increase in FY 2012 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in a final rule at the end of July. The final rule also implements Affordable Care Act requirements.
By Rene Letourneau | 09:50 am | August 08, 2011
A Houston-area nursing home employee was arrested last week on charges of conspiracy, healthcare fraud and violations of the anti-kickback statute for unlawfully billing federal healthcare programs for ambulance transport, announced U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
By Chris Anderson | 12:04 pm | August 05, 2011
Results of a new survey of employers by benefits consulting firm Mercer show that most employers plan to continue offering health insurance coverage to their employees after all the provisions of the Affordable Care Act become effective in 2014.
By David Williams | 11:36 am | August 05, 2011
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) created major incentive programs for clinicians and hospitals that adopt electronic health records and achieve certain Meaningful Use (MU) criteria.
By Stephanie Bouchard | 11:27 am | August 05, 2011
Many self-help gurus will say it's not helpful to compare yourself to others but a new study released Thursday comparing the administrative costs of physicians' offices in the United States and Canada brings home the point that standardizing administrative operations reduces costs and lessens hassles.
By Rene Letourneau | 10:16 am | August 05, 2011
Medicare average prescription drug premiums will not increase in 2012 and the cost of the average Medicare prescription drug plan premium will remain largely unchanged, announced the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday.
By Stephanie Bouchard | 11:34 am | August 03, 2011
Medicare payments to skilled nursing facilities will be cut by $3.87 billion for FY 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in a final rule.