Medicare

Medicare Money for Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant Training?

Should Medicare offer graduate medical education money for nurse practitioner and physician assistant training? That was the subject of a recent inquiry by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. In a new report inspired by concern over the current physician shortage and the belief that making greater use of nurse practitioners might help relieve that shortage, the GAO examined whether expanding Medicare’s graduate medical education (GME) program to include resources for the training of nurse practitioners and physician assistants was practical or possible. As part of its research, the GAO reviewed current literature, interviewed officials of professional associations, and explored the [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-20T06:00:27-05:00December 20, 2019|Medicare|

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|

President, VP Attempt to Mediate HHS Feud

President Trump and Vice President Pence have stepped into a feud between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma. Azar and Verma have apparently clashed on numerous occasions in recent months, with Verma criticizing at least one Azar proposal during an Oval Office meeting and Azar being overruled by the president on several occasions. According to Politico, President Trump “…instructed Azar to smooth things over.” Verma, meanwhile, met with Vice President Pence, with whom she worked when Pence was governor of Indiana. As head of CMS, Verma oversees the country’s [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-11T06:00:21-05:00December 11, 2019|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid, Medicare|

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 December 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 [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-10T06:00:07-05:00December 10, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, post-acute care|

Home Health Agencies Expanding Scope of Endeavor

In the coming years, home health agencies will be providing a broader scope of services. With many such agencies already offering medication management technology, remote patient monitoring, image-sharing technology, and mobile apps for e-visits, many are planning to do more. More than a quarter of home health providers plan to move into or expand their telehealth offerings in the coding years and many already provide chronic care services, with more planning to do so in the coming years. Home health providers also are moving into palliative care, veteran-specific services, and mental health services. Behind some of this expansion of scope [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-09T06:00:21-05:00December 9, 2019|Medicare, Telehealth|

MedPAC to Meet Tomorrow

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission meets this Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C. MedPAC’s December agenda is dominated by Medicare payment issues: how much Medicare should pay for different types of services in calendar year 2021 and FY 2021. The services to be addressed during the December 5-6 meetings are physician and other health professional services, ambulatory surgical center services, hospital inpatient and outpatient services, skilling nursing facility services, home health services, inpatient rehabilitation facility services, long-term care hospital services, outpatient dialysis services, and hospice services. In addition, MedPAC commissioners will discuss their mandated report on expanding Medicare’s post-acute care [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-04T06:00:06-05:00December 4, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Administration Reveals Regulatory Priorities for 2020

The Trump administration’s health care regulatory priorities for 2020 have been outlined by the Office of Management and Budget in a newly released “Statement of Regulatory Priorities for Fiscal Year 2020.” The statement, an annual OMB document, organizes the priorities as follows: Facilitating patient-centered markets Fixing health care financing through protecting private insurance and Medicare Fixing health care financing through reforming the individual market Fixing health care financing through making the ACA and Medicaid fiscally sustainable Bringing value to health care through price and quality transparency Bringing value to health care through patient-centered health IT Bringing value to health care [...]

iqtsupport2019-11-22T06:00:34-05:00November 22, 2019|Affordable Care Act, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid, Medicaid regulations, Medicare, Medicare regulations|

Improper Medicare Payments Down in FY 2019

The amount of improper Medicare payments made by the federal government fell $7 billion in federal fiscal year 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports. FY 2019 marked the third consecutive year that improper fee-for-service payments have fallen. In FY 2018, improper payments accounted for 8.12 percent of Medicare fee-for-service spending but in FY 2019 that portion fell to 7.25 percent. In FY 2019, CMS estimates that it made $28.9 billion in improper fee-for-service payments. $5.32 billion of the $7 billion reduction came through corrective actions in Medicare home health payments. Other Medicare Part B services accounted for [...]

iqtsupport2019-11-19T14:00:06-05:00November 19, 2019|Medicare, 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|