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Archive Tag: hospitals

CMS Proposes FY 2022 Payment Policies for Hospitals, Extending Add-on Payments, Adding GME Slots, and Repealing Market-Based Data Collection

On the evening of April 27, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed rule, Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and Final Policy Changes and Fiscal Year 2022 Rates (link), which updates the FY 2022 payment systems and [...] Read More

CMS Predicts Payment Increase for Hospitals in CY 2020; Transparency Efforts Continue with Proposal to Publicly Release Standard Charges List

Tweet On the evening of July 29, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) calendar year (CY) 2020 proposed rule. The rule also includes updates to the ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system. Policies in the proposed rule focused on site neutrality and transparency, administration priorities. [...] Read More

Hospitals Post Sticker Prices Online – Transparency or Confusion?

When the federal government began requiring hospitals to post their prices at the beginning of this year, CMS Administrator Seema Verma praised the initiative and declared that revealing this financial information would “. . . empower patients.”  Three months into the effort, do consumers have more transparency and choice, is there increased price competition among [...] Read More

CMS Proposes Changes to their Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating on Hospital Compare; Intends to Establish New Peer Rating Groups

Overview On February 28, 2019, CMS posted proposed changes to their Hospital Star Ratings on Hospital Compare  for public comment. These changes intend to enhance the Star Ratings Methodology for hospitals by increasing rating consistency and making hospital comparisons more precise. Potential changes were developed using a newly-developed Hospital Quality Star Ratings Technical Expert Panel (TEP). [...] Read More

Analysis of HHS-OIG’s Hospital Wage Index Report: OIG Cites Significant Vulnerabilities, Advocates for Legislative Change

On November 21 2018, Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) released a report, titled “Significant Vulnerabilities Exist in the Hospital Wage Index System for Medicare Payments”, which describes their examination of the wage index system for acute-care hospitals. The objective of their analysis was to identify “significant vulnerabilities” and propose solutions to […]

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CMMI Announces New, Voluntary Bundled Payment Model

After finalizing the cancellation of its episode payment and cardiac rehabilitation incentive payment models, many were left wondering whether the Trump administration opposed all bundled payment models, or only those in which participation was mandatory. Today, these questions began to be answered as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new bundled payment program: […]

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