Policy and Legislation
Last October, the Wall Street Journal ran a damning expose about the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), a secretive, specialist-dominated panel within the American Medical Association (AMA) that, for the past two decades, has been the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) primary advisor on valuation of medical services.
One third of U.S. hospitals preparing to undertake construction projects already on the drawing board admit ignorance and uncertainty according to a 2011 ASHE survey.
Seven U.S. senators have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw its proposed rule governing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's accountable care organizations because "it misses the target" of better care at lower costs.
Last week’s startlingly gloomy annual report from the Trustees of the Medicare Trust Funds lent new urgency to the need for further Medicare expenditure reforms. Whether Washington DC politicians will respond with more than sound bites is less likely.
The University of Michigan's Board of Regents has set aside $13.7 million to create the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, which will focus on public health policy and an interdisciplinary approach to tackling healthcare challenges.
Congress is either stupid or they're trying to pull a fast one. They continue to scare seniors with the malarkey that the Medicare trust fund will soon become “insolvent.”
A new survey indicates 82 percent of the leaders in health and healthcare policy believe states should be allowed to implement key provisions of the Affordable Care Act with full federal support ahead of the timeline outlined in the law.
California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has announced a $241 million settlement - the largest recovery in the history of the state's False Claims Act - with Quest Diagnostics to recover illegal overcharges to the state's medical program for the poor.
Health insurance has long been a state affair in the USA. Insurance companies were even exempt from many aspects of federal anti-trust law to better enable state regulators to oversee their activities.
The Department of Health & Human Services has unveiled a regulation that will require independent review of most health insurance annual premium increases of 10 percent or higher.