In order to rein in runaway healthcare spending under the Medicare program, political interest has turned to site-neutral payments as a method of keeping costs low. This week, KFF looks into site neutral payments in a new fact sheet and podcast.
Hypothetically, site-neutral payment reforms would reduce the amount Medicare pays for...
A new report by the RAND Institute shows that hospitals are charging private insurers 254% of what Medicare would have paid for both inpatient and outpatient services.
Spending on hospital services accounted for 42% of total U.S. personal healthcare spending for privately insured individuals in 2022. The RAND Report Press...
The new ASC is set to open in the fall of 2024 and is named Lake Havasu Community Health Center (Lake Havasu CHC). The 17,063-square-foot facility will also serve surrounding communities and will feature a surgery center with four operating rooms, two procedure rooms, a catheterization lab and 14 pre- and post-recovery...
Finally some good news for the healthcare sector's workforce, hospital employment numbers have increased, job openings are on the decline and employees are sticking around for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shook up the industry.
Nonprofit hospitals saw substantial relief as labor volatility subsided, and payrolls are...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS published its proposed physician fee schedule (PFS), which add up to a 1.25% decrease in pay for Medicare physicians for 2024. Physician groups and industry leaders met the news with frustration, with some doubling down on calls to reform the entire payment formula. CMS also posted the...
Congress is moving to address glaring payment issues for the Medicare program; some lawmakers have mobilized by taking aim at the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).
For years, there has been an ongoing battle between the Medicare program and physicians who bill the program for payment. Too many options...
The American Hospital Association's study showed Medicare patients who receive outpatient hospital care are more likely to come from an underserved community than those treated in independent physician offices (IPO) or ambulatory surgical centers (ASC).
The study, "Comparison of Medicare Beneficiary Characteristics Between Hospital...
The non-profit healthcare accreditation group for more than 22,000 providers across the country, the Joint Commission, has established new accreditation standards to improve health equity within healthcare organizations. The standards will apply to hospitals, critical access hospitals, primary care providers and ambulatory surgical...
On Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the proposed rules for the CY 2023 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System. Most notably, the CMS proposed increase for OPPS rates for hospitals and ASCs that meet quality reporting...
A report last week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) highlights the challenges healthcare workers (HCWs) faced during the pandemic, including exhaustion, burnout and trauma.
The report, Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Hospital and...
Cases of COVID-19 appear to be on the downward trend nationally, as the number of new cases on October 12 falls to 111,707. Last month at this time, the surge related to the Delta variant of COVID-19 was at its worst with a seven-day average of over 175,000 new cases per day. There were 1,938 new deaths related to the coronavirus on...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is deep into Medicare alternative payment model (APM) revision and adjustment. One such program undergoing review is the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and the revisions include major changes to quality reporting methodologies, the crux of the program.
CMS posted its final...CMS Rules
The American Journal of Managed Care published a study last Friday looking at the increase of outpatient knee replacement surgeries paid through private insurance after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) decision to remove knee replacements from the Inpatient Only list.
According to the AJMC study, there was an...
The final 2019 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule with comment period phases in cuts to hospital outpatient clinic visits and bumps ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) average reimbursement rate per procedure by 2.1 percent while hospital outpatient surgery departments get 1.35 percent more next year.
The new...
