Healthcare News of Note: Department of Justice files formal challenge to UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of Change Healthcare
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: Hospitals react positively to news that the U.S. DoJ will challenge a proposed merger between UnitedHealth Group and Change Healthcare, $265 billion of care services could shift from traditional settings to the home by 2025, and a study says the level of community benefit provided by nonprofit hospitals is poorly aligned with the tax subsidy they receive.
Medicare’s much-hyped Direct Contracting model faces an uncertain future
Medicare’s Direct Contracting model, touted as representing the evolution of alternative payment models, could be shelved less than a year after getting started.
Research seeks to pinpoint health system characteristics associated with the tendency to ‘overuse’ healthcare
Higher bed counts, fewer primary care physicians and investor ownership are among the characteristics of health systems that tend to overuse healthcare, according to a new study.
Medicaid expansion doesn’t appear to bolster finances or operations at critical access hospitals, study finds
Changes in operating margin, staffing ratios and quality metrics didn’t hinge on whether a critical access hospital was in a state that had expanded Medicaid.
Payment approaches to addressing health equity are seen in a new Medicare rule for kidney care
Updates to a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation care model for end-stage renal disease include an equity-related bonus payment and associated changes to benchmarking.
The impact of COVID-19 further shows the need to modify federal pay-for-performance models, hospital advocate says
Quality measures derived during the COVID-19 pandemic are not an accurate gauge of hospital performance in federal programs such as Value-Based Purchasing.
Addressing U.S. healthcare system challenges requires a focus on improving health, not just care
If we are to effectively address the huge cost challenges facing the U.S. health system, we must begin to better address the cost effectiveness of health, says Todd Nelson, HFMA’s director of professional practice and partner relationships. And it has to be through a collaborative process involving all stakeholders, he says, including not just hospitals and health systems, physicians and health plans but also patients and their communities, as well as society overall.
Study shows reduction in hospital readmissions, costs for medically complex patients seen in an outpatient critical care transition clinic
In a recent study, a large group of patients with medically complex chronic conditions were referred to and seen at an Indianapolis-based outpatient critical care transition clinic saw fewer posthospital inpatient admissions and realized decreased costs of care when compared with those who were referred but did not attend the clinic. HFMA’s Shawn Stack provided insight into the importance of the study.
Healthcare News of Note: Many new cancers in the U.S. may be going undiagnosed, a study by Quest Diagnostics shows
Healthcare News of Note for healthcare finance professionals is a roundup of recent news articles: Many new cancers may be going undiagnosed, research and media exposure leads to a reduction in hospitals suing patients for unpaid medical bills, and positive interactions with leadership boost healthcare worker well-being.
Report by Medicare trustees describes a daunting payment picture for healthcare providers
The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is on course to run out of money by 2026, and that assessment wasn’t the only concerning part for hospitals in a new government report.