hospitals

Supreme Court Lifts Public Charge Rule Ban

The U.S. can now reject visa and green card applicants based on their financial prospects after a new Supreme Court ruling this week. This ruling has potential long-term implications for health care providers. Last August a new Department of Homeland Security regulation took effect that authorized the federal government to reject immigrants’ applications for visas and green cards if their financial situation and employment prospects suggested that they might become a “public charge” and dependent on government safety-net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. A number of groups sued to prevent the rule’s implementation and federal courts imposed an injunction [...]

iqtsupport2020-01-30T06:00:23-05:00January 30, 2020|hospitals, Medicaid|

Hospital Outpatient Visits Down

For the first time in 35 years, hospital outpatient volume declined in 2019. Despite the trend toward delivery of more health care in outpatient settings, hospitals saw fewer outpatients in 2019 as more people turned to urgent care settings and other clinics for outpatient services. Much of the decline was in emergency room visits, with patients also turning to urgent care facilities for non-emergency services they traditionally sought in hospital ERs. Despite the decline in volume, hospitals saw their net outpatient revenue rise 4.5 percent in 2019. Learn more about what is happening to hospital outpatient volume in the HealthCare [...]

iqtsupport2020-01-15T11:46:35-05:00January 15, 2020|hospitals|

Good News and Bad for Hospitals on Outpatient Payments

A federal court has provided relief to hospitals that saw reduced Medicare payments for some outpatient services in 2019. But that relief is only partial. In response to a suit filed by several hospital groups, a federal court ruled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services had illegally reduced Medicare payments for services provided in some hospital off-campus outpatient departments beginning on January 1, 2019 and ordered the federal government to repay the hospitals for the Medicare revenue they lost. The reduced payments were part of a new Medicare site-neutral payment policy for outpatient services, and CMS has announced [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-17T09:40:07-05:00December 17, 2019|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, hospitals, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy|

MedPAC Meeting Transcript Now Available

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. The Medicare payment issues on its agenda were: Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Physician and other health professional services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Ambulatory surgical center services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Hospital inpatient and outpatient services; Mandated report: Expanding the post-acute care transfer policy to hospice Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Skilled nursing facility services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Home health care services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Inpatient rehabilitation facility services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Long-term care [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-13T06:00:56-05:00December 13, 2019|hospitals, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Hospitals Sue Over Hospital Price Transparency Requirement

The federal government should be prohibited from implementing its new price transparency requirement for hospitals, a group of hospital trade groups and health systems has declared in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The requirement exceeds the federal government’s authority, the suit maintains, and its implementation would create an undue burden on hospitals, cost a great deal of money, require hospitals to divulge proprietary information, inhibit competition, and overwhelm their information systems. Even after all of that, the suit claims, consumers would still not have useful information because insurers, not hospitals, are the key in [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-06T06:00:38-05:00December 6, 2019|hospitals, Medicare regulations|

High-Deductible Plans Driving Rise in Hospital Bad Debt

Hospital bad debt rose in 2018 after several years of decline, and according to Moody’s, high-deductible health insurance is one of the major drivers of that increase. According to the bond rating agency, non-profit hospitals are seeing growing amounts of bad debt as they struggle, often unsuccessfully, to collect from patients whose high deductibles leave them on the hook for meaningful amounts of care. Kaiser Health News reports that 28 percent of covered workers, nearly half of them working for companies with fewer than 200 employees, now have health plan deductibles of at least $2000. That proportion of individuals with [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-02T06:00:45-05:00December 2, 2019|hospitals|

Hospitals Sue HHS Over Payment Cut

Medicare cut hospital payments $840 million a year more than it should have and now, hospitals are suing to get their money back. According to the lawsuit, Congress authorized Medicare to include a cut of 0.7 percent in hospital inpatient payments through FY 2017 to recoup past Medicare overpayments but Medicare continued the cut, without Congress’s approval, in FY 2018 and FY 2019. The 600 hospitals that filed the suit estimate that the allegedly illegal cut cost them about $200,000 each and now, they want their money back – with interest. Learn more in the Becker’s Hospital Review article “622 [...]

iqtsupport2019-11-26T06:00:10-05:00November 26, 2019|hospitals, Medicare cuts, Medicare reimbursement policy|

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 November agenda were: congressional request on health care provider consolidation increasing the supply of primary care physicians redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program reforming the benchmarks in the Medicare Advantage payment system considerations for plans serving low-income beneficiaries in the restructuring of Medicare Part D post-acute care spending under the Medicare Shared Savings Program MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the Medicare program. While its recommendations are not binding on [...]

iqtsupport2019-11-12T06:00:16-05:00November 12, 2019|Alternative payment models, hospitals, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MACPAC Looks at Medicaid DSH

At a time when cuts in Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH) are still scheduled for the current fiscal year and some in Congress are calling for a new approach to allotting DSH funds among the states, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission has released its annual analysis of Medicaid DSH allotments to the states. The report includes: data about changes in the uninsured rate demographic information about the uninsured information about the cost of hospital uncompensated care perspectives on hospital Medicaid shortfalls a comparison of hospital uncompensated care costs when calculated using different methodologies data about [...]

iqtsupport2019-11-08T06:00:27-05:00November 8, 2019|hospitals, MACPAC, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments|

More Hospitals Gain Than Lose in FY 2020 Value-Based Purchasing Program

Medicare’s value-based purchasing program will reward more hospitals than it will penalize in FY 2020 through its value-based purchasing program. The program, in which 2700 hospitals are scored in four domains – clinical outcomes, safety, person and community engagement, and efficiency and cost reduction – will distribute $1.9 billion in bonus payments to 1500 hospitals. Bonus payment average 0.6 percent, with a high of 2.93 percent. Penalties average -0.39 percent, with a high of -1.72 percent. Overall, rural hospitals performed better in the safety, person and community engagement, and efficiency and cost reduction categories and had a higher average score [...]

iqtsupport2019-10-30T15:15:04-04:00October 30, 2019|hospitals, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy|