Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Programs, Not Penalties, Drive Readmission Reductions
Participating in federal value-based payment programs does more to reduce hospital readmissions than penalties levied on hospitals with too many readmissions. Or so reports a new study published by JAMA Internal Medicine. According to the study, hospitals that participated in one or more of three Medicare value-based payment programs – its meaningful use of electronic health records program, the bundled payment for care initiative, or an accountable care organization (ACO) program – enjoyed bigger decreases in their avoidable Medicare readmissions than hospitals that participated in no such programs but were [...]
New MACPAC Study Evaluates Medicaid, Medicare Payments
Medicaid payments to hospitals are comparable to or even higher than Medicare payments. Or at least they are once supplemental Medicaid payments are included. So concludes a new study by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises the states, Congress, and the administration on Medicaid and CHIP payment and access issues. In what MACPAC bills as the “first-ever study to construct a state-level payment index to compare fee-for-service inpatient hospital payments across states and to benchmark Medicaid payments to other payers such [...]
Medical Homes and High-Need Patients
With five percent of patients accounting for 50 percent of health care costs, such high-need patients are the subject of increasing attention as health care providers search for better ways to serve them at less cost. Such patients are especially challenging when they lack the financial resources and personal support systems needed to address their considerable medical needs. One of those ways is through the concept of the medical home: an approach to primary care, also often referred to as a patient-centered medical home, that is a team-based approach to [...]
MedPAC: New Medicare Post-Acute Payment System Needed – Soon
Medicare should implement a unified, site-neutral payment system for post-acute care as soon as 2021, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has decided. Current efforts to develop and implement such a system should be accelerated, Congress’s advisors on Medicare payment issues decided. While MedPAC’s recommendations are not binding, they are highly respected by Congress and federal regulators and often find their way into new public policy. MedPAC will present its latest recommendations to Congress in June. For more information about MedPAC’s position on post-acute-care payments, see this article in McKnight’s Long-Term [...]
MedPAC Meets
The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee met last week in Washington, D.C. On the MedPAC agenda were the following issues: Part B drug payment policy issues using premium support in Medicare implementing a unified payment system for post-acute care an overview of the medical device industry regional variation in Medicare Part A, Part B, and Part D spending and service use measuring low-value care in Medicare payment and plan incentives in Part D the role of Medicare policy in provider consolidation Find the issue briefs and presentations that supported MedPAC commissioners’ [...]