The Medicaid unwinding continues to pose issues one year in, but healthcare coverage appears stable
The unwinding of Medicaid continuous-enrollment requirements reached the one-year mark this month amid mixed measures of the effect on overall coverage. In one sense, the impact has exceeded all projections. Since states could begin disenrolling Medicaid beneficiaries on April 1, 2023, coverage for more than 19.6 million beneficiaries had been terminated as of April 4,…
BESLER provides thorough Transfer DRG revenue recovery services
Hospitals require clear and simple paths through the challenges posed by changing regulations so they can spend more time and dollars focusing on enhancing patient care.
Highlights of the Administration’s FY 2025 Budget
HFMA presents a summary highlighting healthcare-related proposals included in the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2025, based on materials released by the Biden Administration on March 11, 2024.
Medicaid DSH Third-Party Payer Final Rule Summary
HFMA presents a detailed summary of the final rule issued by CMS addressing legislative changes to the hospital- specific limit on Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments that took effect on October 1, 2021, as a result of the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021.
Federal funding legislation would address Medicaid DSH cuts, physician payments and more
March 8 update The Senate passed the appropriations bill by a 75-22 vote, getting it to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign hours before funding for some federal departments would have expired and a big cut to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments would have begun. Attention now turns to HHS and other…
New rule on Medicaid DSH payments will impose stricter limits on many hospitals
Numerous hospitals that receive Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments face a tighter cap on their payment amounts after the Feb. 23 publication of a CMS final rule. The regulations were spawned by 2020 year-end legislation that made changes to the DSH hospital-specific limit (HSL), including with respect to how third-party payments factor into the…
Continued 340B eligibility is at risk for hundreds of hospitals thanks to pandemic-related factors
Hospitals that rely on savings from the 340B Drug Pricing Program should examine the possibility that they’ll soon be rendered ineligible. Several factors are having an industrywide impact on the disproportionate share hospital (DSH) adjustment percentage, and if that tally drops below a certain threshold on a hospital’s Medicare cost report, the hospital cannot receive…
News Briefs: A new fee is set for using the No Surprises Act arbitration portal
Bringing out-of-network payment disputes to arbitration under the No Surprises Act in 2024 will be less expensive than previously proposed. In a final rule, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury established the administrative fee for using the independent dispute resolution (IDR) portal at $115 per case, effective Jan. 22. That’s…
Limit financial risk from Medicaid redetermination
Medicaid redetermination isn’t going smoothly. As of late December 2023, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 71% of Medicaid disenrollments nationwide were for procedural reasons. That means patients are losing coverage because they filled out a form incorrectly or missed a deadline, not because they’re truly ineligible for renewal. Provider organizations can play a pivotal…
In Congress, it’s status quo for Medicaid DSH payments and the Medicare physician fee schedule
Yet another short-term federal funding measure from Congress included yet another brief extension of full funding for Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments. With funding for much of the federal government set to expire Jan. 19, Congress agreed on a continuing resolution that keeps all agencies fully operational until March. Medicaid DSH payments are guaranteed…