June 11, 2013 Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy at CHIME
article
Last week, CMS released new data sets, including for the first time at the county level, on Medicare spending and utilization, and another on Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. Despite the release of new data by numerous agencies, Congress still wants more transparency. A bipartisan bill -- the Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability Act (Medicare DATA Act) -- will be reintroduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) calling for the release of more Medicare claims data.
June 5, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
Commercial payors aren’t offering as many of the upside-only payment structures that are most popular among early accountable care organizations (ACOs), according to an analysis by the Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier healthcare alliance of 85 payor arrangements.
June 3, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
At Health Datapalooza IV, an annual gathering in Washington D.C. that focuses on health data transparency, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released additional data on hospital outpatient charges and Medicare spending and utilization.
May 28, 2013 Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy at CHIME
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Three Republicans in the Senate have introduced a companion bill to a House of Representatives bill that would prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from replacing ICD-9 with ICD-10 in implementing the HIPAA code set standards.
May 21, 2013 Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy at CHIME
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CMS is accepting additional applications from hospitals to participate in Model 1 of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative, the agency recently announced. The Medicare demonstration includes four models of care that bundle payments for multiple services received during an episode of inpatient and/or post-acute care.
May 15, 2013 Mark Hagland
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Marilyn Tavenner, R.N., the acting administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on Wednesday, May 15, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as CMS's permanent administrator, the first nominee for the job to receive formal confirmation in nearly a decade.
May 15, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a nearly $1 billion initiative that will fund awards and evaluation to build on the Obama administration’s work to transform the healthcare system by delivering better care and lowering costs. This second round of Health Care Innovation Awards will fund applicants that have a high likelihood of driving health care system transformation and delivering better outcomes.
May 14, 2013 Jeff Smith, Director of Public Policy at CHIME
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A bipartisan call came from the Senate Finance Committee this week, asking healthcare providers for input on how to fix the 'broken' Medicare payment system. 'The current Medicare physician payment system is inefficient and needs to go,' Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said.
May 8, 2013 Mark Hagland
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On May 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publicly released hospital charge information, unleashing a wave of mainstream news media coverage, with articles and broadcast segments highlighting dramatic variations in hospital prices, but with the American Hospital Association emphasizing that Medicare does not pay hospital-set charges.
April 17, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
According to a report from researchers at Penn State, the Weill Cornell Medical College, and the University of Pennsylvania, reducing preventable readmission rates among Medicare beneficiaries may take longer than expected due to the challenges of care coordination. One-in-five Medicare beneficiaries returns to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, costing a total of $18 billion to the program, the authors of the report say.
April 11, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
Five national organizations representing diverse constituencies involved in the nation’s healthcare system joined together in presenting consensus recommendations today for improving health care quality while lowering costs nationwide.
April 10, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
According to a recently published document in the Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing a rule that would extend a regulation that allows hospitals to donate electronic health records (EHRs) to physicians until 2016. The rule is an exception to a federal law that prohibits payments of particular services that are meant to encourage a referral back to the hospital.
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