The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an interim final rule, Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Policy and Regulatory Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (April 6), that makes...more
To enable healthcare entities to address the unique and exigent circumstances created by the COVID-19 public health emergency, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued waivers of sanctions...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced an extension of its temporary moratorium on enrolling new nonemergency ambulance suppliers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas and new home health...more
Congress chose to end 2015 with some last-minute Medicare reforms impacting healthcare providers. Significantly, the Patient Access and Medicare Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama on December 28, 2015,...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposed rule aimed at revitalizing accountable care organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Given the low level of ACOs...more
On November 10, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) final rule for 2015. The rule updates CMS’s payment rates and policies, value-based...more
CMS recently finalized a new PPS for Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) services. The implementation of the PPS was mandated by the ACA.
Medicare currently pays FQHCs an all-inclusive rate for the professional...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has set its sights on the quality of care during hospital inpatient stays and much, much more. On May 15, 2014, CMS published a proposed rule that would update Medicare...more
CMS has announced a proposed rule updating Medicare/Medicaid fire safety standards. In particular, CMS proposes to adopt the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) 2012 edition of the Life Safety Code (LSC) and the...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have proposed new emergency preparedness requirements for healthcare providers and suppliers. These new requirements are designed to address the effect of a broad range of...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently denied a request from a bipartisan group of 23 members of congress to exempt the distribution of textbooks and scientific peer-reviewed medical journal materials...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
12/13/2013
/ ACOs ,
Ambulatory Surgery Centers ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
ICD Codes ,
Medicare ,
Outpatient Quality Reporting ,
Patient Prospective Payment System ,
Physician Payments ,
PQRS ,
Value-Based Purchasing
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
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a policy memorandum to state survey agency (SSA) directors regarding the effect of rejecting a Medicare agreement in connection with the acquisition of a...more
After 34 years, a federal district court in Florida has overturned a 1979 injunction which prevented the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from releasing to the public Medicare data related to physician billing...more
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said that "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." The release of charges billed by some 3,337 Medicare hospitals for 100 of the most common inpatient diagnosis related...more
A 2007 audit initiated by a Medicare Program Safeguard Contractor (PSC) discovered that a North Carolina provider had a high incidence of inpatient billings for patients who did not stay in the hospital overnight. The PSC's...more
CMS recently released a transmittal providing instructions to contractors on acceptable methods for providers to amend, correct and incorporate delayed entries into a patient medical record. ...more
In This Issue:
- Healthcare Provisions in the American Taxpayer Relief Act - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- American Taxpayer Relief Act Amends Overpayment Recovery Time Limits
- OIG Advisory Opinion Sheds...more
1/14/2013
/ American Taxpayer Relief Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Data Breach ,
Electronic Medical Records ,
Fraud ,
Healthcare ,
OCR ,
OIG ,
Overpayment Recovery Time Limits ,
Pay-for-Performance ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Settlement