Category: CMS

Twenty-four members of the House of Representatives have asked the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to leverage the development of Stage 3 of the Meaningful Use program to reduce and potentially eliminate health disparities. read more …read more    

House Republicans are rallying around a new strategy to undermine the president’s signature health care law. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor scheduled a vote on Friday to tie a delay of Obamacare’s individual mandate, requiring all Americans to possess health insurance by March 31 or pay a penalty, to a piece of bipartisan legislation that…

Now that the badly botched rollout of the federal government’s health care website seems to be behind us, Republicans have shifted their criticisms to several states that are experiencing problems enrolling people on their state-run exchanges. …read more    

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons continues to break new ground in patient safety and quality measurement through a new collaboration with the Duke Clinical Research Institute. DCRI will establish a link with STS clinical data and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services claims data. This link will enable participants and researchers using data from…

Top News The HIT Policy Committee submits its Meaningful Use Workgroup’s Stage 3 recommendations. Reader Comments From Pointy Toes: “Re: CEHRT Hardship Exception Guidance. This is a joke. All you have to say is you to qualify for the Medicare hardship exemption to avoid the 2015 payment adjustment is to say you had ‘2014 Vendor…

Elsewhere, some business groups enlist help to get their states to expand the program. Also, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urges Georgia’s governor to accept the expansion, which also makes news in New Hampshire and Utah. …read more    

Today’s headlines include reports that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is stepping back from proposed changes to the Medicare drug program. …read more    

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday updated language in its hardship exception applications for Fiscal Year 2015 for both eligible hospitals and eligible professionals participating in the Medicare Meaningful Use incentive program. The updates come in the wake of hardship exception flexibility announced Feb. 27 at HIMSS14 in Orlando, Fla. read more…

Six Republican senators, frustrated that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services denied their request to extend the deadline for Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program, have sent a letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner asking that the hardship exceptions be clarified “immediately.” read more …read more    

A new actuarial study released by The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association examining the impact proposed changes to the Medicare prescription drug program finds that eliminating preferred pharmacy networks in Part D would increase premiums by approximately $63 annually for over 75 percent of Part D enrollees and raise overall program costs by an estimated $24…