Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Non-Profit Illinois Hospitals Keep Tax Exemption – for Now
Non-profit Illinois hospitals will not have to start paying local property taxes. At least not right away. That decision comes from the Illinois Supreme Court, which did not address the question of whether hospitals merit exemption from the local property taxes that some Illinois communities seek to impose on them. Instead, the Supreme Court concluded that the lower courts that ruled unconstitutional the law giving these hospitals their tax-exempt status lacked the jurisdiction to making such a ruling. So the Illinois Supreme Court sent the case back to a circuit [...]
MACPAC Looks at Medicaid DSH
Hospitals that serve especially large numbers of Medicaid and low-income patients still need Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH) to avoid red ink despite the expansion of Medicaid and the increase in the number of uninsured people fostered by the Affordable Care Act. So concludes the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) the non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program issues. In its March 2017 report [...]
MedPAC Offers Provider Rate Recommendations for FY 2018
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has submitted its annual Medicare payment rate recommendations to Congress. The recommendations, required by law, include: rate increases as required by current law for hospital inpatient payments, hospital outpatient payments, physicians, other health professional services, and outpatient dialysis payments; no updates for ambulatory surgical centers, skilled nursing facilities, long-term-care hospitals, and hospices; and five percent rate reductions for home health agencies and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. MedPAC continued its past practice of recommending reform of the manner in which Medicare pays for post-acute-care services, maintaining that [...]
The More High-Need Patients, the Better the Care
Physician practices that serve higher proportions of high-need patients have lower health care costs, fewer hospital admissions, and fewer emergency room visits than physician practices that serve lower proportions of high-need patients. This was the conclusion of researchers who analyzed four years of claims data for high-needs patients in Michigan. The study also found some evidence that smaller medical practices are more effective in serving high-need patients than larger practices. The study, “Outcomes For High-Needs Patients: Practices With A Higher Proportion Of These Patients Have An Edge,” was supported by [...]
Telehealth May Not Reduce Health Care Costs
Telehealth may increase rather than decrease health care costs, a new study has found. The study, performed by the Rand Corporation and based on a limited sampling of data from California, found that only 12 percent of telehealth doctor visits replaced office visits while the remaining 88 percent of telehealth encounters constituted new demand. The study focused on virtual visits for respiratory illnesses and found that the telehealth encounters often led to office visits and medical tests that increased annual spending on respiratory illnesses approximately $45 for each user. Learn [...]