It’s getting hot outside, which means that the summer regulatory season is almost upon us. In June or July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release proposed regs impacting Medicare payments in...more
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
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 Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, commonly referred to as the “Continuing Resolution,” was recently signed into law, creating a short-term fix to funding the federal government for six weeks while also raising the debt...more
We expect 2018 to be another year of rapid change within the health care industry. In this episode, Mary Beth Johnston highlights some of the key topics that the health care practice group will monitor in the coming year,...more
On February 6, 2018, the House voted 242-182 to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to extend government funding until March 23, 2018 (H.R. Res 128). The CR includes provisions to extend funding for a number of Medicare...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
Most physicians have, by this point, gained some familiarity with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The name of this law has appeared frequently in commentary over the past several years, and...more
2018 marks the commencement of the second performance year for the Medicare Quality Payment Program (QPP), implemented under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (otherwise known as MACRA). ...more
On November 2, 2017, CMS published its final rule (the “Final Rule”) on the 2018 Quality Payment Program (“QPP”), authorized by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (“MACRA”). This final rule adopted many...more
On November 2, 2017, CMS issued the final rule with comment for the second year (2018) of the Quality Payment Program as well as an interim final rule. Continuing with its theme of a CMS that is “listening to feedback,” CMS...more
On November 2, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2018 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Final Rule. The Final Rule contains notable changes that may affect smaller practices participating in...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
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
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule on the Medicare Quality Payment Program (QPP) in the Federal Register1 on June 30, 2017. This rule proposes the QPP program requirements for...more
On June 20, 2017, CMS released its proposed rule updating MACRA’s Quality Payment Program (“QPP”) for CY 2018. At over 1,000 pages, the rule might not do much to simplify the already complex requirements of the QPP; however,...more
On June 20, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule (CMS-5522-P) that would make changes to the second year requirements of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015...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 November 14, 2016, CMS published its final rule implementing the physician payment provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (“MACRA”). The rule became effective January 1, 2017. Data collection from...more
If you are a physician, mid-level provider, or work with those providers, then you have been bombarded with new acronyms for new programs and promises to remove older acronyms from your Medicare vocabulary. Medicare...more
Since I began writing this year-end review in 2013, there have been some common themes – a shift to pay for quality and away from fee-for service, much of which has been brought about by the Affordable Care Act (ACA): efforts...more
The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the much-anticipated Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) final rule this month. The rule makes extensive changes to traditional Medicare Part B...more
MACRA (the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) is bi-partisan legislation that was enacted to change Medicare reimbursement from being based on the current system of volume of services provided to...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its final rule with comment period implementing the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). Among its numerous changes,...more
Many observers view the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) as a game changer for the delivery and payment of health care services. On Oct. 14, 2016 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...more