December 2017

Fitch: Stable Outlook for Health Care in 2018

Despite a number of potential threats, Fitch Ratings predicts a stable financial environment for the health care industry in 2018. Fitch’s warns, though, of “outside disruptions” that could threaten that stability.  Among those potential disruptions are tax reform legislation, government regulations, Amazon’s rumored entry into the industry, and advances in technology. The company predicts that ratings downgrades will exceed upgrades in the coming year. Learn more about Fitch’s predictions in this Healthcare Dive article.

2017-12-07T06:00:07-05:00December 7, 2017|Uncategorized|
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CMS Publishes Quality Measures Under Consideration for 2018

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published a list of quality measures it is considering implementing in Medicare quality programs in the coming year. The list consists of 32 proposed measures, down significantly from the nearly 100 it proposed last year.  These measures are subject to comment by the National Quality Forum and stakeholders. Go here to see a commentary from CMS explaining what it hopes to accomplish and how it is pursuing those goals and go here to see a CMS document presenting the 32 proposed quality measures.

2017-12-06T06:00:01-05:00December 6, 2017|Medicare, Medicare regulations|
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New Help With Addressing Low-Income Patients’ Social Services Needs?

One of the long-time barriers to states and hospitals addressing low-income patients’ social services needs and the social determinants of health has been a lack of resources for such assistance.  Medicaid, in particular, has not been a financial participant in such efforts. But that may be changing. The new federal Medicaid managed care regulation, updated nearly two years ago, allows for the inclusion of some non-clinical services as covered Medicaid services and for funding for such services to be folded into Medicaid managed care plans’ capitation rates and medical loss ratios.  The updated regulation also encourages greater coordination of care [...]

2017-12-04T06:00:13-05:00December 4, 2017|Medicaid|
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