Health Care System
On Nov. 2, CMS released the calendar year (CY) 2018 physician fee schedule (PFS) final rule. In addition to the standard update to the payment system, the rule finalizes CMSs proposal to make significant additional site-neutral cuts in payment for services furnished in off-campus provider-based…
A new AHA report that finds non-clinical regulatory requirements cost providers nearly $39 billion a year and divert clinicians from patient care.
CMS issues final rule for CY 2018 MACRA physician QPP
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services late today issued its final rule for the physician fee schedule for calendar year 2018. CMS estimates a 0.41% increase in physician payment rates for 2018 compared to 2017, after applying a 0.5% payment increase required by the Medicare…
Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) today unveiled House Republican leaders’ proposal to reform the tax code. Among other changes, the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act would eliminate hospitals’ ability to access low-cost capital financing through tax-exempt private activity bonds. In addition, the…
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) yesterday introduced the Healthcare Market Certainty and Mandate Relief Act of 2017 that would fund cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers for two years and eliminate temporarily…
If hospital access to tax-exempt financing is limited or eliminated, hospitals’ ability to make investments in new technologies and renovations in the future will be challenged.
In today's rule, CMS finalized a number of policies, including one that will adversely impact patient access to care by reducing Medicare rates for services hospitals provide in new off-campus hospital clinics.
On Nov. 1, the CMS released the calendar year 2018 outpatient prospective payment system/ambulatory surgical center final rule.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today announced it will update the hospital outpatient prospective payment system rates by 1.35% in calendar year 2018 compared to CY 2017. The rule also finalizes CMS’s proposal to drastically cut Medicare payment for drugs that are acquired…