The 2% reduction in Medicare payments known as sequestration began Monday. Providers should begin to see the impact by mid-April. The reductions will affect claims with dates of service or discharge on...
With Medicare cuts coming, GOP prepares another push for vouchers
By
McKnight's Staff
Mar 05, 2013
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is working on a proposed budget that would revamp the Medicare program. Republicans believe the option of turning Medicare into a voucher program may win...
Why long-term care operators are wary – and weary – of sequestration fiasco
By
John O'Connor
Feb 22, 2013
Well, here we go again. Less than three months after President Obama and Congress narrowly avoided walking off a fiscal cliff, we’re bracing for Round 2. Only this time, we’re all a bit worse...
One week to go: Providers anxious about Medicare automatic spending cuts
Feb 22, 2013
All eyes will be on Congress when it reconvenes Monday. Lawmakers will have just four days to act if they are to derail automatic spending cuts that would take 2% off the top of Medicare reimbursements....
Deficit-reduction plan to gain $600 billion from lower provider payments and higher beneficiary premiums
By
McKnight's Staff
Feb 21, 2013
The co-chairs of President Barack Obama’s deficit reduction commission are promoting a way to achieve $600 billion in healthcare “savings” in a new version of their deficit reduction...
No reason to cheer fiscal cliff ‘solution’
By
James M. Berklan
Jan 02, 2013
Should a person be congratulated and backslapped for simply doing his or her job? That’s the question that should be on people’s minds today as they ponder what has happened with fiscal cliff...
AHCA members flying to Washington to lobby for cancellation of funding cuts
By
Elizabeth Newman
Dec 12, 2012
As fiscal cliff negotiations continue, nine state chapters of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living have sent representatives to meet with lawmakers in the nation’s...
Regardless of fiscal cliff outcome, funding cuts loom
By
John O'Connor
Nov 26, 2012
We’re hearing much out of Washington these days about the looming fiscal cliff. Assessments about its impact run the gamut from no big deal to very big deal. As is usually the case, the truth is...
LTC, other healthcare sectors to blitz administration about sequestration cuts, possible alternatives
By
McKnight's Staff
Nov 09, 2012
When President Obama speaks today about mandated sequestration cuts to Medicare funding, he is expected to set off the most intense period of lobbying yet among healthcare providers. Long-term care stakeholders...
Post-election Congressional action might not be so ‘lame’
By
James M. Berklan
Oct 10, 2012
Like a pedestrian at a dangerous intersection, long-term care providers find themselves waiting for the stoplight to change when it comes to reimbursement policy.