Medicare quality reporting

New Reg Pushes Medicare Toward Site-Neutral Outpatient Payments

Medicare would make more payments for outpatient services on a site-neutral basis under a newly proposed regulation just released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The 2019 Medicare outpatient prospective payment system regulation, published in proposal form, calls for: paying physician fee schedule rates rather than hospital outpatient rates at excepted off-campus provider-based departments; slashing payments for office visits; extending this year’s 340B prescription drug discount payments, already cut nearly 30 percent this year, to additional providers; and raising ambulatory surgical center rates and expanding the list of procedures that can be performed in such facilities so they [...]

admin2018-07-27T06:00:18+00:00July 27, 2018|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, hospitals, Medicare, Medicare regulations|

CMS Reports on Quality Measures Performance

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published a new report detailing the progress of health care providers in meeting Medicare quality standards and improving their performance under those standards. The report, required every three years, focuses on 17 key indicators of quality in the delivery of health care as defined by 247 individual quality measures. The analysis found that: 670,000 patients improved their control of their blood pressure 510,000 fewer patients have poor control of their diabetes 12,000 fewer people died following hospitalization for a heart attack there were 70,000 fewer unplanned hospital readmissions nursing home residents suffered [...]

admin2018-03-19T06:00:39+00:00March 19, 2018|Medicare, Medicare regulations|

CMS Publishes Quality Measures Under Consideration for 2018

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published a list of quality measures it is considering implementing in Medicare quality programs in the coming year. The list consists of 32 proposed measures, down significantly from the nearly 100 it proposed last year. These measures are subject to comment by the National Quality Forum and stakeholders. Go here to see a commentary from CMS explaining what it hopes to accomplish and how it is pursuing those goals and go here to see a CMS document presenting the 32 proposed quality measures.

admin2017-12-06T06:00:01+00:00December 6, 2017|Medicare, Medicare regulations|