Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
MORE LIFE SUPPORT FOR RURAL HOSPITALS
New rule secures cash flow to rural hospitals, changes payments on certain drugs. More than one thousand small rural hospitals and sole community hospitals are getting an extension on desperately needed reimbursement support. Special add-on payments for these facilities, designed to ensure that they're paid at least as much under the outpatient prospective payment system as they had been paid under the prior cost-based methodology, were set to expire in the new year. An interim final rule issued by CMS Dec. 31 will safeguard these payments for two additional years. The rule also modifies the way Medicare pays for radiopharmaceuticals and drugs and biologicals in the outpatient setting. To see the rule, go to: www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a040106c.html. Lesson learned: Small hospitals have been spared the anticipated cut-off - but they may still feel the pinch of decreased reimbursement on certain drugs.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
- Regulations:
DOZENS OF REGULATORY CHANGES IN THE PIPELINE
What's coming down the pike from CMS and the OIG.
Medicare's regulatory framework is a [...] - Physicians:
CMS RINGS IN THE NEW YEAR WITH PHYSICIAN PAY HIKE
Starting January 1, physicians can see it to believe it.
Good news for physicians - [...] - Home Care:
NEW HOME CARE PPS RATES MAY CHANGE MORE THAN EXPECTED
HHAs prepare for inflation update revamp.
The market basket index for home health agencies is [...] - Health Savings Accounts:
IRS ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR NEW TAX-FAVORED ACCOUNTS
The Internal Revenue Service in new guidelines outlines the broadly favorable tax treatment and other [...] - Medicare Rx:
REALITY: MEDICARE MAY NEED TO SET SOME Rx PRICES
Health economist Joseph Newhouse predicts that the Medicare prescription-drug law's "non-interference clause," which prohibits the [...] - Medicare+Choice:
SENIORS IN FOR-PROFIT PLANS NOT DENIED HIGH-COST CARE
At least in the Medicare program, for-profit managed care plans provide as much access to [...] - Hospice:
COPs, Amendments On Hospice Horizon
Hospices have their fair share of regulatory action planned this year. According to the Centers [...] - Pharmaceuticals:
CMS TACKLES AWP
In one of its first steps towards turning the sprawling Medicare legislation signed by President [...] - People:
SMITH BECOMES ACTING CMS CHIEF
Former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Tom Scully has joined the law firm [...] - Medicare+Choice:
M+C 2004 ACRP TIMELINE
To be ready for the changes in March, M+COs need to act now.
The Medicare [...] - Pharmaceuticals:
CMS BEEFS UP DRUGMAKER RECORDKEEPING RULE
Time limitation bumped up to 10 years.
Drug makers will need to hold onto pricing [...] - Pharmaceuticals:
MEDICAID Rx SCRUTINY placed on DOCS, PHARMACISTS, PATIENTS
Watch for yet more investigation of suspected prescription drug fraud .
Big players in the [...] - Hospitals:
MORE LIFE SUPPORT FOR RURAL HOSPITALS
New rule secures cash flow to rural hospitals, changes payments on certain drugs.
More than [...] - Hospitals:
SMALL TOWN HOSPITALS TO RECEIVE BIG-CITY WAGES
Special appeals for wage index classification are now under way. The Centers for Medicaid & [...] - Self-Referral:
ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR - feds DELAY SELF REFERRAL RULE, AGAIN
Effective date for controversial Stark provision now July 7, 2004.
In keeping with its three [...] - CMS MANUAL UPDATE
Physicians will be able to bill Medicare for HCPCS code J0880 starting Jan. 1, 2003, [...]
