CMS Awards $665 Million in Second Round of State Innovation Models Initiative – CMS announced the recipients of the second round of the State Innovation Models (SIM) awards on December 16, 2014. The recipients—28 states, three territories and the District of Columbia—will receive over $665 million in funding to design and test state-led health care payment and service delivery models that seek to improve health, improve care, and lower costs. Over $622 million in model “test” awards will support states that are ready to implement their proposed State Health Care Innovation Plans, and nearly $43 million in model “design” awards will support recipients in developing or further refining their plans and strategies. The CMS Fact Sheet is available by clicking here. The HHS Press Release is available by clicking here.
CMS Releases FY 2015 Results for the HAC Reduction Program and Hospital VBP Program – CMS has released the results for the FY 2015 Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program and Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program. According to the announcement, approximately 724 hospitals will have their payments reduced by one percent in FY 2015 under the HAC Reduction Program. Under the VBP program, the number of hospitals that will experience a positive change in their base operating diagnosis-related group (DRG) payments in FY 2015 is slightly higher than the number of hospitals that will experience a negative change, and about half of all affected hospitals will see only a small change in their base operating DRG payments (between -0.3 and 0.3 percent). The CMS Fact Sheet is available by clicking here. The CMS data tables for these two programs (Tables 16A, 16B, and 17) are available by clicking here.
New Quality Data Posted on Physician Compare and Hospital Compare Websites – Per an announcement on December 18, 2014, CMS has added new quality data to the Physician Compare website and has updated quality measures on the Hospital Compare website and released data on new measures. The CMS Fact Sheet is available by clicking here.
HHS Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Clinical Trials Registration and Results Submission to ClinicalTrials.gov – King & Spalding’s FDA & Life Sciences Practice Group has recently issued a Client Alert, addressing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Clinical Trials Registration and Results Submission that was published by HHS on November 19, 2014. Comments on the proposed rule are due by February 19, 2015.
Editorial Note – We will not be publishing Health Headlines on December 29, 2014. Please look for our next edition on January 5, 2015. Happy Holidays!
