CMS Releases Final Price Transparency Rule for Hospitals; Proposes Rule for Insurers; Hospitals Will Sue Hospitals and insurers would be forced to disclose their secret negotiated rates for the first time under a far-reaching plan released Friday by the Trump administration. Administration officials said the final...
Leapfrog Releases New Hospital Safety Grades, "D Level" Hospital Files Suit At least a third of 2,600 surveyed general acute-care hospitals earned an "A" for safety efforts, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group, 25 percent received a "B" grade and 34 percent a "C" grade. The Leapfrog...
Final CMS OPPS Payment Rules: -- Defy Court Rulings on 340B, HOPD Site Neutral -- Postpone Price Transparency Rules -- Revise E/M Coding -- Remove More Procedures from Inpatient-Only List CMS has released its final rules for the FY2020 hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and physician fee schedule. The only...
Healthgrades Releases 2020 Analysis of Top Performing Hospitals The annual report featured hospitals from the nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide that were evaluated based on clinical outcomes across 32 procedures and conditions. The Healthgrades' 2020 Specialty Excellence Award ranks hospitals that are found to be in the top 10% in key...
More than 100 CAHs Urge Senate To Change Surprise Billing Legislation In letters to all 100 senators, more than 100 Critical Access Hospitals from 30 states urged the Senate to change the surprise billing legislation to be less burdensome on CAHs. "We strongly support the stated...
HHS Reg Changes Would Allow for New Relationships Between Docs, Hospitals and Others Long-awaited regulatory changes to the physician-self referral and anti-kickback statute regulations were released jointly last week by CMS and the HHS Inspector General. The proposed rules are the result of a CMS request for information...
Trump Executive Order Seeks To Make Medicare Payment Rates More Competitive with Commercial Rates President Trump signed an Executive Order last week aimed at strengthening Medicare and Medicare Advantage, supporting telehealth services and supplemental benefits offered by insurers, and ensuring that traditional Medicare is not promoted over...
New CMS Mandate To Collect 340B Drug Cost Data, Signals New Payment Reduction Efforts CMS quietly issued a notice last week that it will begin collecting data on 340B drug acquisition costs. This likely signals that the agency is preparing for a new payment reduction scheme...
Surprise Billing Legislation on Slower Track; Swing State Voters Oppose Three different House committees are working on surprise billing legislation...
Assault on Hospital Prices Intensifies Make no mistake, spending for hospital services is under increasing assault by the government and private payors and big pharma. In a series of regulatory proposals from CMS this year, the agency has targeted various hospital funding streams for reductions. From...