Category: CMS

A little over a week after the deadline that President Barack Obama gave for fixing the federal health care exchange, the system serving 36 states is far more user friendly, according to consumers and navigators. …read more

The measure would permanently change how Medicare pays providers for their services. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office has reduced the price tag associated with repealing the current Medicare payment formula. …read more

Pardon my cynicism, but I’m not overly impressed with the proposal to extend the timeline for Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program and delay implementation of Stage 3 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. read more …read more

USA Today reports that the National Association of State Medicaid Directors may release more information this week about how the federal exchange may be mislabelling people as Medicaid-qualified. …read more

Duane Dauner, president of the California Hospital Assn., emailed the group’s board in September with a warning: The leader of the state’s largest health care workers’ union had told him that if hospitals did not pave the way for the organizing of 20,000 workers, the union would launch ballot measures taking aim at hospital pricing…

The reactions came pouring in not long after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announced a new timeline for the implementation of meaningful use under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR [electronic health record] Incentive Programs. The reactions came pouring in not long after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announced a…

Reaction from hospital executives was mixed following Friday’s announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of a proposed extension of Meaningful Use Stage 2 through 2016. read more …read more

Some Medicare beneficiaries who place 911 calls to request an ambulance might safely be cared for in settings other than the emergency department at lower cost. Using 2005–09 Medicare claims data and a validated algorithm, we estimated that 12.9–16.2 percent of Medicare-covered 911 emergency medical services transports involved conditions that were probably nonemergent or primary…

The decision not to participate will costs states billions over the next decade which will be passed onto taxpayers, according to a study by the pro-reform Commonwealth Fund. …read more

Officials say negotiators are cobbling together a deal that offsets planned sequester cuts, but which includes none of the big reductions in Medicare or other entitlements sought by Republicans, nor any of the tax increases sought by Democrats. Instead, it includes targeted measures, such as increased fees for airport-security and federal guarantees of private pensions.…