Congress is officially in recess for the month of August and will return after Labor Day. On the regulatory front, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final fiscal year (FY) 2024 Inpatient...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report concluding that there are vulnerabilities in the process of reconciling Medicare hospital outlier payments....more
Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule (Final Rule) modifying the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective...more
On April 18, 2016, CMS released its proposed rule addressing new payment rates and policies under both the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System (PPS),...more
On November 2, President Obama signed into the law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (the “Act”), which contains language that will significantly change how hospital-based outpatient care is reimbursed....more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has implemented a revised payment system for Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs). The changes, which became effective on October 1, define two separate payment categories for...more
On July 21, 2015, CMS issued a final rule updating the fiscal year (FY) 2016 Medicare payment polices and rates under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment...more
On July 8, 2015, CMS published in the Federal Register [PDF] its proposed changes and updates to the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System policy...more
On July 1, CMS published proposed changes to the so-called “Two-Midnight Rule,” which currently governs when inpatient hospital admissions are entitled to Medicare Part A payment. The proposed changes were announced in a...more
On April 17, 2015, CMS released a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) to update the fiscal year (FY) 2016 Medicare payment policies and rates under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital...more
On November 19, 2014, House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady introduced a 146-page discussion draft of the Hospital Improvements for Payment Act of 2014 (HIP). HIP seeks to, among other things, make...more
On October 31, 2014, CMS published its 2015 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Policy Changes and Payment Rates final rule. This annual rule affects the 4,000...more
The final physician fee schedule (PFS) and hospital outpatient department payment rules for FY 2014 clearly signal the continued intent by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transform the healthcare...more
CMS has published its Calendar Year (CY) 2014 Final Rule for Medicare policy and payment rates for hospital outpatient prospective payment systems (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) services. This final rule with...more
In the fiscal year 2014 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule (the “final rule”), CMS explained the new disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment methodology that took effect this October 1. As we reported in...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued controversial new criteria for hospitals to use to determine whether a patient's stay in a hospital should be treated as an outpatient observation stay or...more
In This Issue: - What Providers Should Know - Requirements for Inpatient Admissions and Payment Under Medicare Part A - New Rules Permitting Re-billing Under Medicare Part B for Denied Admissions - New HAC...more
In Bagnall v. Sebelius, No. 3:11-CV-01703 (D. Conn.), a federal district court in Connecticut recently granted a motion to dismiss the complaint of fourteen Medicare beneficiaries seeking to invalidate an HHS policy allowing...more
CMS issued guidance on September 26, 2013, regarding the implementation of the “Two-Midnight” rule addressed in the August 2013 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule. Under the Two-Midnight rule, patient...more
On September 5th of this year, CMS issued guidance [PDF] addressing hospital inpatient admission orders and certifications. The regulations addressing certifications at 42 C.F.R. §§ 424.13 – 424.16 were revised as part of the...more
Under CMS’s modified inpatient admission guidelines adopted in the IPPS Final Rule, Part A payment is “generally inappropriate” unless the patient is admitted based on the physician’s expectation that the patient will require...more
On Friday, April 26, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a crucial payment system rule that proposes updated rates and regulatory policies for inpatient hospitals (including inpatient psychiatric...more
CMS has released its proposed federal fiscal year (FFY) 2014 prospective payment system (PPS) rule for inpatient stays in acute care and long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). The rule projects a net increase in operating payments...more