Hospitals push back on Senate report that calls out lack of spending on charity care
Not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals continue to be the subject of congressional scrutiny, with the chair of a key Senate committee issuing a report that questions whether they provide levels of charity care that are commensurate with their tax exemption. The report was released Oct. 10 by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Health, Education,…
CMS pressures states to restore Medicaid coverage for some beneficiaries who have been disenrolled
CMS says a recent edict to state Medicaid programs has partially stanched the ongoing wave of disenrollments in the program, with about 500,000 beneficiaries set to regain coverage they had lost and “many” others protected from disenrollment going forward. As described in a Sept. 21 summary, 29 states plus Washington, D.C., have acknowledged a systemic…
As clock ticks toward massive Medicaid disproportionate share hospital cuts, proposed bill would bring relief
A congressional bill that would impose additional transparency requirements on providers also would offer a respite from a sizable cut to a key supplemental payment. A $32 billion reduction to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments is scheduled to span four years, beginning when federal FY24 gets underway Oct. 1. The Lower Costs, More Transparency…
Congress puts the community benefit standard for nonprofit hospitals under the microscope
The criteria that establish hospitals’ tax-exempt status are coming under closer scrutiny, with a bipartisan quartet of senators asking the IRS to ramp up its oversight of compliance with the community benefit standard. Sens. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent an Aug. 7 letter to the…
Medicare contractors should more closely examine providers’ bad debt claims, HHS watchdog says
Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) soon could apply more scrutiny to providers’ reported bad debts if CMS implements recommendations from the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIG in December issued a report in which it examined bad-debt reimbursement claims on Medicare cost reports spanning 2016 through 2018 for 67 randomly selected providers (including 29 hospitals). In those…
Hospitals can recover all eligible Medicare bad debts by automating the Medicare bad debt review process
One company addresses the challenges of complex rules regulating Medicare bad debt processes and reporting, which makes payment recovery for hospitals difficult.
HHS can continue using Worksheet S-10 to calculate uncompensated care payments after federal court ruling
A federal district court dealt hospitals a defeat in a case about uncompensated care payments, issuing a summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Hospitals get relaxed Medicare repayment terms, short delay of DSH cut in federal funding bill
Hospitals will get some flexibility in the repayment of Medicare advance payment loans and a delay in uncompensated-care payment cuts under a new federal funding law.
Latest COVID-19 federal assistance only partially targets hospitals
Hospitals will quality for only some of the new provider-assistance funding pools HHS unveiled this week.
The yin-yang of Medicaid: Expected federal regulations will increase number of uninsured despite increase in states taking expansion dollars
Despite more states considering taking Medicaid expansion dollars, federal regulatory efforts may drive an acceleration in the number of uninsured.