The following contains information on new initiatives, ongoing projects, and other related news about and from HFMA. Please bookmark this page as it will be updated periodically.
HFMA Announces Next Phase of Value Project
As healthcare reform accelerates, hospitals and health systems must understand how they can transform their cost structures in the short, medium, and long term to mitigate transition to risk—the risk inherent in moving too early or, especially, too late in the shift toward value-driven business models of care. HFMA's Value Project will begin conducting research this spring to determine when, where, and how cost transformation might occur. The research will focus on five areas: acquisition and affiliation strategies, physician strategies, reconfiguring cost structure, measuring and communicating value, and societal benefit and cost structure. If your organization is doing innovative work in any of these areas, please contact Jim Landman, HFMA's director of thought leadership.
HFMA Submits Comments to CMS on Requirements for Physician Quality Reporting
HFMA supports CMS’s efforts to better align its policy with HFMA’s core payment reform principles.
Read HFMA’s comment letter.
HFMA Submits Comments to House Committees on Draft Proposal for Replacing the SGR
In a letter to the chairs of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees and their respective subcommittees on health, HFMA commented on a draft proposal for legislation to replace the Sustainable Growth Rate.
Read HFMA’s comment letter.
HFMA Responds to TIME Magazine Article
In its February edition, TIME Magazine published a cover story, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us.”
Read HFMA’s response.
Additional News
Obama's Proposed Budget Includes $46 Billion in Medicare and Medicaid Payment Cuts
The White House positioned the budget proposal, released on April 10, as "its final offer to Republicans in the deadlocked deficit reduction talks," according to news outlets. However, in light of opposition to the president's proposal from both sides of the aisle, it may just be an opening offer, says HFMA technical director Chad Mulvaney. "The legislation passed over the New Year [the American Taxpayer Relief Act] also allowed the Treasury to ignore the debt ceiling until April 15," Mulvaney says. "However, Congress won't have to work out a deficit reduction/debt limit increase deal immediately. Most estimates suggest the federal government can meet all of its commitments until sometime this summer."
The president's proposal also includes $249 billion to permanently fix the sustainable growth rate (SGR). For HFMA's perspective on this proposal, please see our comment letter listed above.
Study: Claims Costs Could Increase 32 Percent Under the ACA
Individual health insurance policy claims costs could rise 32 percent, on average, by 2017 under Affordable Care Ace (ACA) reforms, according to a report released by the Society of Actuaries. The report says that the percentage could vary widely from state to state; as many as 43 states could experience double-digit percentage claims cost increases. The study also projects that healthcare coverage could expand by 32 million new enrollees, decreasing the percentage of uninsured Americans from 16.6 to 6.6 percent, and that individual market enrollment could increase by 115 percent by 2017, with approximately 80 percent of those receiving coverage through state insurance marketplaces.
Survey Shows Industry Behind on ICD-10 Readiness
The healthcare industry is not making the needed amount of progress for a smooth transition to ICD-10 in October 2014, according to an ICD-10 industry readiness survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI). Almost half of the health plans surveyed expect to gain external testing by teh end of this year, compared with data from WEDI's parallel survey in February 2012, in which all health plans had expected to begin external testing in 2013. Meanwhile, about half of the providers surveyed did not know when testing would occur, and more than two-fifths of providers surveyed indicated they did not know when they would complete their ICD-10 impact assessment and business changes.
ANI to Highlight State Insurance Marketplace Strategies
Given the uncertainty regarding how sates will implement insurance coverage under the ACA, HFMA will offer special coverage of this issue at the upcoming ANI: The 2013 HFMA National Institute, June 16-19 in Orlando, Fla. The structure of state health insurance marketplaces is still in flux, despite an October 2013 deadline for open enrollment. Adding to the confusion is the uncertainty in states' decisions about whether to expand Medicaid coverage. Provider organizations unprepared for these changes run a considerable risk, according to insurance exchange pioneer Jon Kingsdale, a featured speaker at this year's ANI.
Publication Date: Monday, May 06, 2013