We trust modern medicine to be evidence-based: grounded in the most current and reliable research available. But sometimes medicine gets it wrong, and clinicians engage in unproven, ineffective, expensive, and even harmful practices. Worse, these practices can become entrenched as standard protocols. Good intentions Clinicians are not immune from hope. And hope, bolstered by logic, [...] Read More
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) held a virtual public meeting on March 2, 2023. The meeting included sessions on additional analyses of potential recommendation for countercyclical disproportionate share hospital allotments and updates on unwinding the continuous coverage requirements and other flexibilities. The full agenda for the meeting and presentations for additional sessions [...] Read More
The Durable Medical Equipment Medicare Administrative Contractors (DME MACs) have announced a policy change expanding coverage for continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). The decision, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hopes will decrease health disparities in the diabetes community, is expected to improve health outcomes for many Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, while reducing [...] Read More
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia currently have some form of certificate of need (CON) requirement under which specified healthcare organizations—including hospitals, outpatient facilities, and long-term care facilities—must secure approval from a state regulatory agency before undertaking major capital expenditures or program expansions. Depending on each state’s CON program, hospitals looking to add beds, increase their [...] Read More
In what it described as part of “ongoing efforts to increase access to care and to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens for stakeholders,” The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has discontinued the use of Certificates of Medical Necessity (CMN) and Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Information forms (DIFs) for claims with dates of service on [...] Read More
If you’ve had a prescription filled in the last year, you probably already know that the United States is facing a shortage of retail pharmacists. Across the nation, many customers are finding their local pharmacy closed, sometimes for newly specified lunch hours, sometimes for weeks, and sometimes forever. Last year a full third of Walgreens’ [...] Read More
Two decades ago, value-based purchasing (VBP) and health equity were emerging concepts in healthcare, largely unknown outside of policy conversations or schools of public health or health administration. Today, they are driving principles in American healthcare. But some are asking if they are oppositional goals and, if so, how the two can be reconciled. Parallel [...] Read More
On December 8 and 9, 2022, the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Payment Advisory Commission (MACPAC) held a virtual public meeting. The meeting included sessions on possible recommendations for improving Medicaid race and ethnicity data collection and reporting, required annual analysis of Disproportionate Share Hospital allotments, recent developments in Section 1115 demonstration waivers [...] Read More
With holiday gatherings commencing and COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases rising, it’s reasonable to expect that, in addition to sharing infections, many families will soon be trading observations on how men and women manage illness differently. While this may offer fodder for dinner table debates and good-natured ribbing between spouses or siblings, [...] Read More
They are making headlines across the country and prompting more than a few people to reconsider career choices—the generous sign-on bonuses hospitals and healthcare systems are offering as they compete for a limited number of nurses. In El Paso, Texas, the Hospitals of Providence recently upped its $20,000 sign-on bonus for RNs to $30,000 as [...] Read More