January 29, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), expressing concern that hospitals will not be able to put forth complete, accurate quality data via their EHRs. The comments were in response to a request for information (RFI) on hospital and vendor readiness for the submission of electronic quality data, as part of the CMS’ Inpatient Quality Data Reporting (IQR) program.
January 24, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
A majority of Americans put the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges at the top of the priority list for health policy in their state this year, according to a survey released on Jan. 24 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
January 22, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
In a speech with a strong focus on unity among Americans and with a heavy emphasis on social progress, President Barack Obama briefly mentioned healthcare in his second inaugural address in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21.
January 14, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
Under the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans will gain access to affordable health coverage through Affordable Insurance Exchanges (also known as health insurance marketplaces) and improvements in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 2014. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced a proposed rule that promotes consistent policies and processes for eligibility notices and appeals in Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Exchanges, and give states more flexibility when operating their Medicaid programs.
January 5, 2013 Mark Hagland
article
In the wake of the so-called “fiscal cliff deal” that averted the effects of federal budget sequestration for two months when it was passed by Congress on Jan. 1 and signed by President Obama on Jan. 2, Blair Childs, senior vice president for public affairs at the Charlotte-based Premier health alliance, spoke with HCI Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland about the current policy and political situation on Capitol Hill. To paraphrase Bette Davis, healthcare providers need to expect a bumpy ride throughout 2013.
January 3, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that more states are on track to implement the health care law and establish health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, in their states.
January 3, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
According to a request for information (RFI) document released recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is reaching out to providers, EHR vendors, and other interested parties on electronically reporting patient-level data under the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program starting in 2014.
January 2, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
Upon learning of the Jan. 1 news that Congress put into place a one-year “doc fix” to prevent a 26.9-percent immediate Medicare reimbursement cut to physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is calling on legislation to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.
January 2, 2013 Mark Hagland
article
At approximately 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 1, the U.S. House of Representatives concluded voting, by a margin of 257 to 167, to approve a bill that the U.S. Senate had approved at about 1:57 a.m. Tuesday, to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” triggered on Tuesday by prior legislation passed in 2011. The legislation forestalled for several weeks the triggering of federal budget sequestration, which would have unleashed $110 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts, including across-the-board 2-percent Medicare reimbursement cuts to healthcare providers.
January 1, 2013 Mark Hagland
article
At approximately 1:57 a.m. eastern time on Tuesday morning, Jan. 1, the U.S. Senate passed legislation designed to avert a combination of automatic tax increases and budget cuts, less than two hours after the federal government had technically “gone over the fiscal cliff.”
December 31, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Even as Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reached an agreement Monday afternoon, Dec. 31, on a tentative deal to stave off large tax increases beginning Tuesday, Jan. 1, they remained at an impasse on whether and how to prevent $110 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts—among them Medicare reimbursement cuts, according to media reports Monday. As a result, the country will “go over the fiscal cliff,” to use a phrase initially coined by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to describe succinctly a federal budget sequestration process involving hundreds of billions of dollars in increases in federal tax rates combined with hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending cuts, all of which begin Jan. 1.
December 22, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
On Dec. 20, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had issued conditional approvals to three states as they move to implement health insurance exchanges. Meanwhile, the leaders of eight state governments have still not yet declared their intentions with regard to this mandatory element of the healthcare reform law.