Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Medicaid Enrollees: Access and Quality Are Good
Medicaid beneficiaries are generally satisfied with their access to care and the quality of care they receive. Or so reports a new study based on results of the federal Medicaid Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey for December of 2014 to July of 2015. According to the survey, nearly half of Medicaid patients rated their overall care 7.9 or greater on a scale of 10; 84 percent reported that they had been able to receive all of the care they needed over the past six months; and [...]
ACOs, APMs Proliferate
The number of accountable care organizations and alternative payment models is growing, as is the number of people served by such programs. According to a new study published on the Health Affairs Blog, there are more than 900 ACOs across the country – a 10 percent increase over a year ago. 32 million Americans are served by ACOs today – 2.2 million more than a year ago. Among them, 59 percent are served through commercial contracts, 29 percent by Medicare contracts, and 12 percent under Medicaid contracts. ACO growth is [...]
Denied Hospital Claims Exceed A Quarter of a Trillion Dollars a Year
Insurers deny about $262 billion in hospital inpatient and outpatient claims a year, according to a new study. That amounts to about nine percent of approximately $3 trillion in claims hospitals file with insurers a year. Of that rejected $262 billion, roughly 63 percent is recoverable but that costs hospitals $118 per claim, or nearly $9 billion a year in costs associated with that recovery. Learn more about this analysis produced by Change Healthcare in this Healthcare Finance News article.
HHS Needs to Do More on Physician Training
The federal government needs to do more to ensure an adequate supply of primary care physicians and their deployment in non-urban areas outside of the northeastern U.S. Or so concludes a new study performed by the U.S. Governor Accountability Office. According to the GAO report, efforts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have resulted in progress toward meeting both of these goals – but not enough progress. With the federal government spending $15 billion on graduate medical education, GAO believes, HHS can and should do more to [...]
Elderly Patients Return to Hospitals After Observation Stay
More than one in five Medicare patients who have observation stays in the hospital return to that hospital within 30 days, according to a new study published in The BMJ. Among those returning to the hospital, 8.4 percent return to the emergency room, 2.9 percent have another observation stay visit, and 11.2 percent are admitted to the hospital. Another 1.8 percent pass away within 30 days. The numbers are similar for Medicare patients who only visit the emergency room. Learn more about the study’s findings and its implications for improving [...]