Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Feds Looking to Bundle Medicare Post-Acute Payments?
Bring us your ideas for bundling Medicare post-acute-care payments, the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation recently told a gathering of hospital officials in Washington, D.C. As reported by Fierce Healthcare, CMMI director Adam Boehler told hospital officials that Now is the time to bring us ideas. We’re really in listening mode…I think there’s been a lot of intrigue and interest we’ve heard from people. So we’re gathering stakeholder input there on that and it’s a great time to give us thoughts on where we can lower [...]
SNF Discharge May Affect Hospital Readmission Rates
Heart failure patients discharged from skilled nursing facilities after two days or less may be as much as four times more likely to be readmitted to a hospital than those who stay longer, according to a new analysis. The study also found that the hospital readmission rate falls by half for patients who remain in a skilled nursing facility for one to two weeks. The analysis evaluated Medicare data for heart failure patients at least 65 years old and did not adjust for their severity of illness. These findings suggest [...]
Medicaid Expansion Helping FQHCs
Federally qualified health centers have benefited from Medicaid expansion, a new survey has found. According to a new Commonwealth Fund report, a survey comparing FQHCs in states that expanded their Medicaid programs to FQHCs in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs found that FQHCs in expansion states are: more financially stable more likely to provide behavioral health services, including medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, counseling, and coordination of care with social service providers more likely to engage in value-based care Because of Medicaid expansion, FQHCs now are paid [...]
MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s April agenda were: Expanding the use of value-based payment in Medicare Medicare Shared Savings Program performance Redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program Increasing the accuracy and completeness of Medicare Advantage encounter data Evaluating patient functional assessment data reported by post-acute-care providers Options for slowing the growth of Medicare fee-for-service spending for emergency department services Options to increase the affordability of specialty drugs and biologics in Medicare [...]
Groups Work to Create New Codes for Social Determinants
Social determinants of health could have their own ICD-10 codes if a new initiative from the American Medical Association and United Healthcare succeeds. The two are working together to develop new ICD-10 codes that would take into consideration social determinants of health such as housing and food security, access to transportation, and ability to pay for medicine. The project launches at a time when research suggests that social determinants of health can affect nearly 80 percent of health care outcomes. Learn more in the Health Analytics IT article “AMA, UnitedHealth [...]