Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Operating Margins Lag for Non-Profit Hospitals
Non-profit hospitals’ operating margins fell from a median of 2.8 percent in 2016 to 1.9 percent in 2017, according to Fitch Ratings. Non-profit hospitals’ profitability also declined. Despite this, Fitch finds that these hospitals have strong balance sheets, with cash on hand and cash-to-debt ratios rising in the past year. It warns, though, that continuing declines in operating margins could eventually threaten those healthy balance sheets. Learn more about Fitch’s analysis in this summary of its ratings report.
Nursing Home Occupancy Declines
Nursing home occupancy fell to 81.7 percent during the second quarter of 2018, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors House & Care. Among the reasons for this decline in the use of skilled nursing facilities are policy changes that seek to shorten length of stay and competition from home health services and assisted living facilities. Occupancy among seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans has been flat, with those living in urban areas more than twice as likely to spend time in skilled nursing facilities than those who reside [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met recently in Washington, D.C. to review a number of Medicaid- and CHIP-related issues. MACPAC members heard presentations on and discussed the following issues: Multistate Collaboration: Panel on State Perspectives Themes from Interviews on the Development of Hospital Payment Policies DSH Payments: Policy Changes and Policy Options Operational Considerations for Work and Community Engagement Requirements Medicaid Coverage of New and High Cost Drugs Managed Care Oversight Oversight of UPL Payments: Additional Analyses and Policy Options Mandated Report: Therapeutic Foster Care Find outlines [...]
CMS Proposes Easing Regulatory Requirements
In a newly proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposes easing the regulatory burden on health care providers. The proposed regulation, which weighs in at 285 pages, covers a broad range of government regulation of health care providers and would, CMS projects, save hospitals more than $1 billion a year while cutting millions of hours of administrative work. Learn more about what CMS proposes by reading its fact sheet on the proposed regulation or going here to see the proposed regulation itself.
Medicare Joint Replacement Program Produces Savings
The first reporting period for Medicare’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model found that participating providers cut costs for episodes of care by more than $900, or 3.3 percent. Most of the savings, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports, were achieved by sending patients to less-expensive post-acute-care settings or by reducing patients’ length of stay in such facilities. CMS also found that the program’s mandatory participants, located in 67 metropolitan statistical areas, achieved these savings without compromising quality of care as measured by post-discharge emergency room visits, hospital [...]