Policy and Legislation

July 19, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its proposed update to the Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) for calendar year (CY) 2012.

Lawmakers introduced legislation yesterday designed to reverse a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will allow middle-class early retirees to qualify for free Medicaid benefits.

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office are developing a demonstration project to address the costly problem of frequent preventable inpatient hospitalizations of nursing facility patients.

We are at serious risk of applying a self-inflicted wound that will be difficult to recover from.

Almost 300 school-based health center programs have been awarded a total of $95 million, announced HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week.

President Barack Obama seems desperate for a compromise with Republicans over the debt ceiling. In a press conference on Monday, he once again agreed to consider cuts in social security and Medicare.

While employment growth nationally was disappointing in June, hiring in the U.S. healthcare sector continued to trend upward. The industry added 13,500 positions in June.

Healthcare IT is critical as hospitals begin to make the change from delivering volume-based care, to delivering value-based care.

The specter of copayments is one of the biggest issues facing the home healthcare industry today, said a panel Thursday.

Millions of Americans are not receiving needed dental care services because of "persistent and systemic" barriers that limit their access to oral healthcare, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.