Category: CMS
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Raising eligibility age and reforming some Medicare practices can increase sustainability, say experts
Raising the age of eligibility and reforming some Medicare practices can go a long way to making it sustainable, according to three Arizona State University healthcare policy experts.
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CMS Reiterates: October 2014 Remains Intact for ICD-10 Implementation
Reiterating that ICD-10 is an essential component to tracking more detailed healthcare data and strengthening a national health information infrastructure, Denise Buenning, MsM, Deputy Director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services, again stated Wednesday that the October 1, 2014 ICD-10 compliance date remains in place. “CMS is…
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House measure introduced to ‘eliminate consumer confusion’ about who is, and is not, a doctor
The measure would make it illegal for a health care professionals to make false or deceptive advertising claims. In addition, two Senate committees are focusing on various aspects of either fruad within the health care markeplace, or misleading sales tactics, as a means to find savings in Medicare and Medicaid.
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Democratic Sen. Harkin puts hold on Tavenner’s nomination
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has placed a hold on one of President Obama’s top healthcare nominees. Marilyn Tavenner had previously seemed poised for an easy, bipartisan confirmation as the administrator of the federal Medicare and Medicaid agency.
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No delay in tying Pioneer ACO pay for quality performance
Medicare will tie financial incentives to quality performance this year for 32 accountable care organizations known as Pioneers, the CMS’ first and most ambitious pilot of the new payment model.
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Survey: Small, Mid-Sized Hospitals Slow on ICD-10 Implementation
According to a recent survey from the Plantation, Fla.-based coding vendor, Health Revenue Assurance Holdings (HRAA), one-in-five small-to-midsized hospitals have not begun education or training practitioners for the shift to the ICD-10 code-set. HRAA found that half of these hospitals are not in-tune with the official Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ICD-10 transition…
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Adult day care centers tally big Medicaid costs
Not a wheelchair or walker was in sight at these so-called social adult day care centers. Yet the cost of attendance was indirectly being paid by Medicaid, under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s sweeping redesign of $2 billion in spending on long-term care meant for the impaired elderly and those with disabilities.
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Washington Debrief: Sebelius Responds to GOP Senators on HITECH Criticism
Six Senators sent letters to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and health IT stakeholders questioning the effectiveness of HITECH implementation. In response to the report, Secretary Sebelius said, “We haven’t gotten to implementation of Stage 2 yet,” Sebelius said in a recent Senate Finance Committee budget hearing. “You might be reading the final chapter before we…
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Think Tank Claims Medicare Proposal Would Cut Healthcare Costs Significantly
The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank which proposes policy reform legislation, has released a proposal that would lower healthcare costs and ultimately, reduce the federal deficit by $560 billion. The proposal includes a Medicare system that would allow beneficiaries to choose from three coverage options including the current fee-for-service model, a Medicare…
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Overcoming the Obstacles to State-to-State HIE Interoperability
What can the government do to better enable health information exchange (HIE)? That’s the core question the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology recently asked in a request for information (RFI). Micky Tripathi, president and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC)…