All Articles In 'Tag Archives: 'CMS''
Medicare Special Needs Plans: MedPAC Recommendations on Future of Special Needs Plans
Special Needs Plans (SNP) are part of the Medicare Advantage program and were created by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). There are three types of SNPs, each intended to provide coordinated care for Medicare [...]
Health Care Spending and Hypertension: The Cost of High Blood Pressure
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is related to several major chronic diseases. Obesity and diabetes raise your chance of developing high blood pressure, which in turn makes you more likely to suffer from heart disease and [...]
Medicare Hospital Payment: MedPAC Recommends One Percent Rate Increase for FY 2014
Hospitals face another year of tight Medicare reimbursement, with rates for FY 2014 falling farther behind cost increases and margins declining as a result. Most hospitals already lose money on caring for Medicare and Medicaid patients. [...]
Health Care Costs: Slowdown in Growth is Because of Economy, Not Obamacare
Growth in health care spending has slowed recently. Why? Supporters of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – aka Obamacare – says its due to the controversial law, although most of the ACA’s provisions are yet to [...]
Medicare and Medicaid Spending on Dual Eligible Populations: Analysis of Health Costs
Much of the story about rising health costs and spending has to do with relatively small groups of people with expensive health needs. For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates Medicare beneficiaries [...]
Medicare Physician Sustainable Growth Rate: Repealing SGR
For over a decade, the sustainable growth rate (SGR) has been a source of financial worry for physicians who serve Medicare patients. Medicare’s physician payment rate is based on a composite measure of the cost of [...]
Medicare Payment Reform: Post-Acute Provider Reimbursement
The term “post-acute care” (PAC) covers a range of services patients receive after a hospital stay. Skilled nursing facilities, home health care agencies, long-term care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation hospitals all provide post-acute care. PAC providers [...]
Medicaid Expansion Through Health Insurance Marketplaces: Unresolved Questions
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has answered some questions about how Arkansas’s creative plan to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The plan, which Gov. Mike Beebe put forward, would use [...]
Chronic Care Management: CMS Multiple Chronic Conditions Dashboard
Many new care models in both the public and private sector focus on people with chronic diseases, particularly conditions like diabetes, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Care Coordination/Home Telehealth (CCHT) pilot program [...]
Impact of ACA on Health Premiums and Enrollment: Society of Actuaries Estimates of Health Reform Law
Love it or hate it, the Affordable Care Act is unprecedented in size, scope, complexity, and uncertainty. To project its impact, numerous policy, economic, competitive, and behavioral factors must be considered and assumptions made. From an [...]
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