Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
A Look at Surprise Medical Bill Legislation
While Congress’s decision this week to put off addressing the surprise medical bill challenge until next year has disappointed many, that decision did not reflect any lack of ideas for what to do. At last count, various parts of Congress were considering four major surprise medical bill proposals: one from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, one from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one from the House Ways and Means Committee, and a compromise proposal from the Senate HELP and House Energy and Commerce committees. Some have [...]
Good News and Bad for Hospitals on Outpatient Payments
A federal court has provided relief to hospitals that saw reduced Medicare payments for some outpatient services in 2019. But that relief is only partial. In response to a suit filed by several hospital groups, a federal court ruled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services had illegally reduced Medicare payments for services provided in some hospital off-campus outpatient departments beginning on January 1, 2019 and ordered the federal government to repay the hospitals for the Medicare revenue they lost. The reduced payments were part of a new Medicare [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the sessions. The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission kicked off its December meeting with highlights from its forthcoming issue of MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book, due out December 18, 2019. MACStats brings together statistics on Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment and spending, federal matching rates, eligibility levels, and access to care measures, which come from multiple sources. Later the [...]
MedPAC Meeting Transcript Now Available
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. The Medicare payment issues on its agenda were: Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Physician and other health professional services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Ambulatory surgical center services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Hospital inpatient and outpatient services; Mandated report: Expanding the post-acute care transfer policy to hospice Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Skilled nursing facility services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Home health care services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Inpatient rehabilitation [...]
MedPAC Considers No Pay Raise for Ambulatory Surgical Centers
Next month MedPAC will likely vote to recommend that ambulatory surgical centers receive no increase in their Medicare payments in 2021. Meeting last week in Washington, D.C., members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission appeared to support strongly a staff recommendation to keep Medicare ambulatory surgical center payments where they are now – enough so to expedite resolution of the issue by voting on it at MedPAC’s next meeting, in mid-January. MedPAC also will vote on a proposal to require ambulatory surgical centers to provide annual cost reports to the [...]