Some Good News to End the Year It has been a challenging year in federal health policy. Although much of the focus has been on reforming the pharmaceutical sector, hospitals, physicians and other providers have been fighting regulatory and legislative battles over payment streams. Several developments...
Deal Reached on Surprise Billing Between House and Senate Committees The Senate Health Committee and House Energy and Commercy Commitee announced the agreement Sunday in a news release, but omitted details about the precise mechanism for resolving disputes between insurers and health care providers when out-of-network...
The Next Three Weeks: Congress returns to work this week on a mad dash to the Christmas recess. The government runs out of money December 20, so the primary legislative effort will be to keep the funding flowing. (And House action on impeachment.) This is likely...
(The Strategic Health Care family wishes you a wonderful Thanksgiving!) $4 Billion in Medicaid DSH Cuts Postponed a Month; Funding Continued for Other Health Programs The President has signed legislation (H.R. 3055) to continue funding the government through December 20th, the bill included a delay in the...
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...