Category: CMS

Kentucky Spirit Health Plan doesn’t have the right to withdraw early from a contract with the state as a Medicaid managed care organization. …read more Source: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130601/INFO/306019946

The American College of Physicians today provided 19 specific recommendations, supporting evidence and implementation details on how to improve the Medicare physician fee schedule and the fee-for-service system overall in response to a request by the Senate Finance Committee on May 10. …read more Source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130601/ACP-provides-recommendations-for-Medicare-physician-reimbursement-FFS-systems.aspx

As Medicare and Social Security’s trustees prepare to release their annual report Friday, USA Today reports that the rate of increase in overall Medicare spending could continue to slow because of the 2010 health law. The Associated Press reports that a slowed upward curve only delays a day of reckoning for the popular programs, however.…

States wrestle with the issue of expanding their Medicaid programs under the federal health law. …read more Source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130601/Medicaid-expansion-Maine-looks-at-another-plan3b-Advocates-lobby-NH-Missouri-lawmakers.aspx

A lack of clear rules governing providers that perform advanced-imaging scans could undermine the federal goal of limiting Medicare patients’ exposure to radiation. …read more Source: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130531/NEWS/305319947

A core desire to create a single population-focused model of care for all Medicare beneficiaries, rather than multiple payor-driven approaches, drives Atrius Health’s participation in the CMS Pioneer ACO program, explains Emily Brower, executive director of accountable care programs at Atrius Health. The success of the Atrius ACO hinges on several preferred partnerships it has…

The Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority, an independent state agency that aims to enable health information exchange (HIE), recently announced that it will integrate and share healthcare data from 11 different regional and statewide HIEs across the state. The platform, from the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Truven Health Analytics, will connect patient data from various providers, health…

We’re at the point where more than half of all doctors and other eligible providers have received Medicare or Medicaid incentive payments for adopting or meaningfully using electronic health records (EHR). And yet it seems like widespread EHR satisfaction is a pipe dream. Last week, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) put out…

Meanwhile, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown seeks to expand Medi-Cal and New Hampshire lawmakers set up a fight over the expansion. …read more Source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130531/Medicaid-expansion-Arizona-foes-look-to-voter-referendum-brewing-fight-in-NH.aspx

Immigrants to the U.S. contributed $115.2 billion more to Medicare’s Hospital Trust Fund during the past decade than they withdrew, casting doubt on criticism they overburden the health plan for the elderly and disabled, according to a study by researchers from Harvard and the City University of New York. …read more Source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130531/Immigrants-help-Medicare-stay-solvent-study-finds.aspx