Healthcare Financial News

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced that the standard Medicare Part B monthly premium will be $96.40 in 2009, the same as that for 2008. This is the first year since 2000 that there was no increase in the standard premium over the prior year.

Normally, the Part B premium increases at the same rate as average Part B expenditures from year to year. However, because of the more-than-adequate asset level expected at the end of 2008, no increase is needed in the Part B premium to maintain an adequate asset level for 2009.

The Part B deductible was increased to $110 in 2005 and, as a result of the Medicare Modernization Act, is currently indexed to the annual percentage increase in the Part B actuarial rate for aged beneficiaries. In 2009, the Part B deductible will be $135, the same as in 2008.

CMS also announced that the Part A deductible and premium for 2009 will be $1,068--an increase of $44 over that in 2008. Read the fact sheet.

Despite regulatory changes allowing hospitals to help physicians purchase electronic medical records (EMRs), hospitals are proceeding cautiously, according to a study released Sept. 18 by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

Under August 2006 exceptions to the federal physician self-referral and anti-kickback laws--both intended to prevent hospitals from offering financial incentives to physicians in return for patient referrals--hospitals can subsidize up to 85 percent of the upfront and ongoing costs of EMR software and related IT support services for physicians. Physicians must pay the full cost of any hardware, and the exceptions are scheduled to sunset on Dec. 31, 2013, when physicians must assume any ongoing EMR costs.

Although a few hospitals in the study had begun small-scale, phased rollouts of subsidized EMRs, the burden of other ongoing hospital IT projects, budget limitations, and lack of physician interest were among the factors impeding hospital action, according to the study. The study’s findings are detailed in a new HSC issue brief, Despite Regulatory Changes, Hospitals Cautious in Helping Physicians Purchase Electronic Medical Records. Read the issue brief.