Healthcare Finance News

Medicare Advantage Rates, Policies Draw Insurer Praise

April 3—Medicare Advantage (MA) plans received an unexpected pay boost and generally beneficial policies in the final call letter and rules issued this week for 2019.

Rich Daly April 4, 2018

LTCH Pay Change to Cover Less than Half of Costs: Analysis

April 2—An ongoing Medicare payment change will cover less than half of the costs of care for long-term care hospital (LTCH) patients who are subject to it, according to a new analysis.

Rich Daly April 2, 2018

April 2-6 Policy Watch: National Opioid Summit to Highlight Challenges

March 29—Policymakers and healthcare providers will gather in Atlanta next week to identify effective approaches to an opioid crisis that appears to be worsening, according to new data.

Rich Daly March 29, 2018

Not-for-Profit Hospital Downgrades Increased in 2017: Report

March 27—Credit pressures drove more downgrades of not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals in 2017 than in 2016, with the NFP sector exceeding the downgrade-to-upgrade ratio of the recession years of 2008 and 2009, according to a report this month by Moody's Investors Service. 

Rebecca Vesely March 28, 2018

Proposal to Eliminate MIPS Appears to Lack Provider Buy-in

March 26—The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) earlier this month announced a proposal to drop the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program as part of its annual report to Congress on needed changes to Medicare payment policies. 

Rod Moore March 27, 2018

Federal Spending Bill Lacks Sought-After ACA Stabilization Measures

March 22—A bill to fund the federal government through the rest of FY18 includes various healthcare measures but does not incorporate a proposed stabilization plan for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) insurance markets.

HFMA News March 22, 2018

Association Health Plans Advance Over Hospital Concerns

March 20—Congressional Republicans and small-business advocates this week rejected hospital concerns that proposed rules to allow a proliferation of association health plans (AHPs) would produce a range of problems.

Rich Daly March 21, 2018

Smarter Tech Tools Battle Physician Burnout

March 19—About half of all U.S. practicing physicians experience burnout, and several recent studies have placed the blame squarely on the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), which require data entry and other click-based tasks. 

Rebecca Vesely March 20, 2018

340B Hospitals and Drugmakers Battle Over Transparency

March 16—Supporters and critics of the 340B discount drug program agree that more transparency is needed, but they remain sharply divided over who needs to be transparent and what such reporting should include.

Rich Daly March 16, 2018

March 19-23 Policy Watch: Push to Include ACA Marketplace Stabilization in Funding Bill

March 15—Healthcare leaders are renewing their push to include a stabilization measure in a must-pass federal funding bill that is required by the end of next week.

Rich Daly March 16, 2018
googletag.cmd.push( function () { googletag.display( 'hfma-gpt-leaderboard' ); } );