The CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Rules
Podcast — Drug Pricing: How Are Payers Responding to the IRA?
Findings from Gibbins’ Annual Healthcare Bankruptcy Report
A Fond Farewell: Musings on the End of the Medicare Advantage Hospice Carve-In Demonstration
Video: Braidwood v. Becerra – Challenging the Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Services Coverage Provision – Thought Leaders in Health Law
Hospice and Home Health Survey Perspectives: A Conversation with Kim Skehan, VP of Accreditation at CHAP
Transparency and the Open Payments Program
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Video Podcast | Episode 173: Improving rural health care with Dr. Kevin Bennett, the Director of the Research Center for Transforming Health and the
Counsel That Cares - The Private Payer's Perspective on Value-Based Care
Podcast: Health Equity – Behind the Buzzwords – Diagnosing Health Care
A Very “Special” Episode: Amid Controversy, CMS Launches the Hospice Special Focus Program
Grace from CMS: Unexpected Good News on HIS and CAHPS Appeals
This Bandwagon Has a Broken Wheel: OIG Joins the Inconsistent Approach to Hospice GIP Claims
Behind the Curtain: Enhanced Provider Enrollment Oversight
Survey Woes: CMS Ramps Up Hospice Survey Program and Consequences
Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Provisions – What Now? – Diagnosing Health Care Podcast
A Glimpse Into the Other Side: Understanding the Perspective of Government Enforcers
I Understood There Would Be No Math: Audits, Extrapolations, and a New Set of Rules
Podcast: Inflation Reduction Act’s Drug Price Negotiation Provisions – What’s Next? - Diagnosing Health Care
Quick Takeaways From the 2024 Proposed Hospice Wage Index Rule
Lots of health care service providers find themselves in the position of needing to file a Medicare appeal. Despite the systematic nature of modern Medicare billing, wrongful denials remain common, and errors during Medicare...more
In the event of a national disaster or emergency under the Stafford Act or the National Emergencies Act and a Public Health Emergency Declaration by government officials, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...more
In the wake of its recent efforts to settle claims (see the 2014 initial hospital inpatient settlement and the 2016 second-round wave), in the heavily backlogged Medicare administrative appeals system, CMS has introduced a...more
Every year, health lawyers, providers, consultants, and government experts from across the country convene in Baltimore for the American Health Lawyers Association’s Institute on Medicare and Medicaid Payment Issues, the most...more
Recent opinions by the Fifth Circuit, the Northern and Southern Districts of Texas, and the District of South Carolina offer hope to providers seeking relief from substantial monetary recoupments during the Medicare appeals...more
The current, ultimate dilemma in the health care reimbursement legal arena is the catastrophically long wait for a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) with the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (“OMHA”)....more
Medicare’s implementation of post-payment review through overly aggressive zone program integrity contractors (ZPICs) and unified program integrity contracts (UPICs), combined with an ineffective review process at the first...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on November 3, 2017 additional settlement options for providers and suppliers in an effort to improve the Medicare claims appeals process, which included (1) the Low...more
In an effort to resolve its backlog of Medicare appeals, the Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) established a Settlement Conference Facilitation (SCF) pilot program in June...more
HHS’s Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) has long faced a backlog in Medicare appeals to Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). In an effort to address this backlog, OMHA established a Settlement Conference...more
In preparation for the upcoming expansion of its Settlement Conference Facilitation (SCF) program, the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) has directed interested providers and suppliers to review the SCF Expansion...more
In January 2018, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced additional information regarding a new Low Volume Appeals (LVA) settlement option and an expanded Settlement Conference Facilitation (SCF) as part of...more
On February 5, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) began accepting Expressions of Interest (“EOI(s)”) from Medicare fee-for-service providers to participate in a new Low-Volume Appeals Initiative...more
On January 9, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced details on the new low volume appeal settlement option, which is the latest alternative available to Medicare Part A and Part B providers and...more
On November 3, 2017, CMS announced that it plans to implement two appeals settlement initiatives designed to decrease the backlog of Medicare appeals pending at the Medicare Appeals Council (MAC) of the Department Appeals...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a Final Rule aimed at reducing and eventually eliminating the backlog of more than 650,000 claims currently awaiting adjudication by an administrative law judge...more
On January 17, 2017, HHS published its final rule addressing modifications to the Medicare benefit claim appeals process. The final rule seeks to reduce the significant backlog of pending Medicare appeals and streamline the...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published its proposed rule [PDF] revamping the Medicare appeals process at the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) level on July 5, 2016. The proposed rule extensively revises...more
On Feb. 25, 2016, the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) conducted a teleconference to address Phase III of the Settlement Conference Facilitation (SCF) project, which also became effective on Feb. 25, 2016. SCF,...more
On December 8, 2015, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the Audit & Appeals Fairness, Integrity, and Reforms in Medicare (AFIRM) Act of 2015 (S. 2368). ...more
Medicare’s implementation of post-payment review through private contractors who are overly aggressive in denying payments, combined with a severe backlog of cases in queue for hearing before an Administrative Law Judge...more
On October 15, 2015, the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (“OMHA”) conducted a teleconference to address Phase II of the Settlement Conference Facilitation (“SCF”) Pilot, effective October 1, 2015. SCF, launched in...more
On June 3, 2015, the Senate Finance Committee passed an original bill that aims to streamline and improve the Medicare Audit and Appeals Process. The Medicare appeals process has recently faced scrutiny from industry leaders...more
The Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA), a division of HHS that administers the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearing program for Medicare claims appeals, recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking...more
On September 29, 2014, CMS released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) report. According to the report, RACs collected $3.65 billion in Medicare overpayments during FY 2013. In addition, the report...more