On April 5, 2019, CMS issued final rules (the Final Rule) implementing various provisions of the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act (the 2018 Budget). The 2018 Budget includes provisions allowing Medicare Advantage plans to provide...more
Originally posted in Bloomberg BNA’s Medicare Report, 28 MCR 96, 2/3/17. On November 1, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) - Final...more
This month, hospitals impacted by Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA) may finally get a glimpse of what the future holds for the off-campus departments they operated or were developing when the BBA was...more
A bill amending the “site neutrality” limitations brought by Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was introduced in the House of Representatives last week and passed out of committee yesterday. H.R. 5273, the...more
On Wednesday May 18, 2016, members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee introduced a proposal to continue OPPS payment for those off-campus provider-based departments that were “mid-build” as of November 1, 2015. Under...more
On Wednesday, members of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee introduced bipartisan legislation that would provide some welcome relief to hospitals who had already invested resources to develop new provider-based...more
In Depth - The House Ways and Means Committee next week is expected to consider and approve the Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act of 2016, legislation that would create broader exceptions under much maligned...more
NATIONAL - Medicare Proposes New Part B Payment System - The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 27 proposed a new rule that would transform Medicare Part B reimbursement to practitioners into...more
Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was initially passed to cut payments to hospital departments in order to provide funding to lift the Federal debt ceiling, increase domestic spending in Fiscal Year 2016, and...more
On December 18, 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report analyzing the increase in hospital/physician consolidation and a related increase in Medicare hospital outpatient spending. Finding that...more
Hospitals have long tried to expand their footprints by developing, or in many instances acquiring, physician practices and other medical operations to provide services beyond the immediate vicinity of the hospital’s campus....more
On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (the “Act”) into law. The Act, widely hailed as a rare act of bipartisan cooperation, raises the federal debt ceiling and sets federal spending...more