Reimbursement

Former owners of California medical device companies of submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for power wheelchairs and other equipment totaling $6.8 million.

Cost of repealing Medicare's sustainable growth rate would add $145 billion in government spending, report claims.

In my close look at silver plan selection in 2015 among HealthCare.gov customers who were eligible for Cost Sharing Reduction (available only with silver plans), I expressed some disappointment that CSR takeup had apparently dipped a bit on the federal exchange from 2014 to 2015. Disappointment on that particular point may have been misplaced.

“Not all readmissions can or should be prevented; indeed, some are planned as part of sound clinical care,” AHA says.

Participants in the program are expected to scale their value-based payments to 30 percent by 2016 and 50 percent by 2018.

Under the provision, CMS could continue to use Medicare Administrative Contractors to "probe and educate" providers on their likely compliance with the two-midnight rule.

Bill calls for stiffer fines for tax delinquent Medicare service providers, keeping reimbursement for acute care providers to 1 percent and by upping premiums for wealthier Medicare beneficiaries.

Staring down the sometimes troubled and opaque past of medical devices, and upward trend in spending, one national insurer is trying to build momentum for a universal way to compare and track outcomes.

This tax season, for the first time since the health law passed five years ago, consumers are facing its financial consequences. The worst may be yet to come.

Silicon Valley is coming for the employer sponsored health insurance business, trying to raise the bar on group health benefits and "democratize" self-funding.