With Tax Day on the horizon, don’t fall into these specific traps. Our last installment provided some details and basic rules every doctor should know about tax planning, including who is responsible for the information on your tax return, details about what income you have to report, and a look at the sales techniques promoters […]
CMS is following a budget-neutral approach by implementing a permanent cap on negative wage index changes to smooth yearly payment impacts. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a proposed rule updating hospice-based payments and the aggregate cap amount for fiscal year 2023. Hospices would see a 2.7%, or $580 million, increase in […]
From 2021 to 2030, national healthcare spending will return to its steady upward growth as the unusual impacts of the coronavirus pandemic dissipate. CMS has released its projections for national healthcare spending from 2021 to 2030, noting that healthcare as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) will remain comparable to the share […]
During the Delta and Omicron surges, hospitals and health systems faced significant challenges, prompting AHA to ask Congress for additional COVID-19 financial support. The American Hospital Association (AHA) has urged Congress to provide hospitals and health systems with additional COVID-19 financial support, including more Provider Relief Funds and an extension on the Medicare sequester relief. […]
Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who received care under value-based payment models, including two-sided risk models, saw lower acute care use than beneficiaries under a fee-for-service model. Medicare Advantage beneficiaries whose primary care organization participated in a value-based payment model saw lower rates of hospitalizations, observation stays, and emergency department visits, according to a study published in […]
Office visits represented 48 percent of all telehealth services used in the first year of the pandemic, making it the service most accessed via telehealth, federal data shows. Medicare beneficiaries most often used telehealth for office visits in 2020, receiving 54.5 million virtual office visits in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to […]
The American Medical Association urged congressional leaders to lift the freeze on Medicare physician payments and provide updates that reflect inflation and practice costs. Following a recent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) report, the American Medical Association (AMA) has asked Congress to update the Medicare physician payment system to include a stable annual payment rate […]
Through the online price transparency tool, users can view hospital service prices and assess machine-readable file completeness. A healthcare technology company has launched an online price transparency tool that allows consumers to compare hospital costs before seeking care. Turquoise Health’s Price Transparency Scorecard lets consumers find prices by searching for specific services or providers. The […]
Patient self-service is key for providers to keep pace with the evolution of healthcare consumerism. Catch a flight recently? Odds are, you booked your tickets online. Visited a bank? There’s a good chance you used an ATM. Just think about the last time you went to the grocery store: How long was the self-checkout line? […]
States should prepare for fluctuations in Medicaid spending on nonelderly acute care after the declaration ends. The end of the coronavirus public health emergency declaration could lead to a shift in Medicaid spending for state Medicaid programs and federal Medicaid costs, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Urban Institute. States […]