On June 22, 2023, the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing titled “MACRA Checkup: Assessing Implementation and Challenges that Remain for...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Calendar Year (CY) 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Final Rule on Nov. 1, 2022, which impacts Medicare Part B payments starting on Jan. 1, 2023....more
CMS recently announced updates and milestones for several programs run by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). CMMI is the internal CMS agency responsible for developing and testing new health care payment...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it has several “prevailing concerns” regarding the accuracy of the 2017 Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scoring data that was used to set...more
The OIG added six new items to its Work Plan in the July 2018 update. Areas addressed include HHS cybersecurity vulnerabilities, increased payments for transfer claims with outliers, oversight of funds for Access Increases in...more
Michael Barry and Max Reiboldt joined Mark Coker to discuss the Top 10 Lessons Learned from First-to-Second Generation Transactions. Mr. Barry is a partner in the Corporate Practice and the Healthcare Practice and focuses his...more
CMS recently announced that it wants to launch a new demonstration program, the Medicare Advantage Qualifying Payment Arrangement Incentive (MAQI) Demonstration. If approved and adopted as a demonstration project, the MAQI...more
In March, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its biannual report to Congress on matters affecting the Medicare program. MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues...more
• Congress amended current law to prevent CMS from applying the “MIPS” payment adjustment to separately billed items like drugs and biologics, which will drastically reduce the total amount of payment adjustments to clinical...more
Congress moved one step closer to avoiding a government shutdown on Feb. 6, voting overwhelmingly (245-182) to pass a short-term, GOP-backed government funding bill (text; section-by-section) that would keep the federal...more
A non-profit acute care hospital may share cost savings for certain spinal surgeries with neurosurgeons in a multi-specialty physician group following approval by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is launching BPCI Advanced – the successor program to the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative. Providers that like the current BPCI program, or simply missed the...more
The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) recently posted its first advisory opinion interpreting a gainsharing arrangement – that is, a financial relationship under which...more
On January 9, 2018, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new voluntary bundled payment model program – Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced). The episode payment model, which...more
On January 9, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new voluntary bundled-payment demonstration program, also known as Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Advanced. The new model will test...more
If the 2017 healthcare environment could be summed up in one word, it would be “uncertainty.” With the largely unexpected election of Donald Trump as President, the multiple, unsuccessful attempts by the Republican controlled...more
CMS recently issued guidance on the three-part “Prevention of Information Blocking” attestation which physicians and other eligible clinicians will need to submit to CMS in order to qualify for points under the “Advancing...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Nov. 1, 2017, released the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and the Medicare Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Final Rule for...more
With all the discussion lately about trying to manage the cost of healthcare, what are the most important recent changes in reimbursement methodology and strategies which Patient First has seen in the market? The ongoing...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) simplified the process for clinicians and other providers to seek the Quality Payment Program (QPP) Hardship exception by releasing an online application on Aug. 2....more
Summer was no vacation for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency released a series of significant rules that signal the nature and pace of CMS Medicare payment and policy changes for hospitals and...more
In April 2015, Congress established a new framework for Medicare Part B physician payments through the passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (“MACRA”), which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...more
CMS recently proposed modified policies for continued implementation of the Quality Payment Program (QPP) in the 2017 Proposed Rule. Among other things, the Proposed Rule provides flexibility for clinicians in the second QPP...more
Payment models that seek to reward physicians, hospitals and other health care providers for achieving certain quality and cost-saving goals, or “value-based purchasing” (VBP), are not new to the healthcare landscape,...more
On June 20, 2017, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a proposed rule which would exempt a greater number of small practices from complying with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of...more