Social Security numbers to be removed from Medicare beneficiary cards
By
John Hall
Apr 21, 2015
After more than 10 years of warnings by government investigators, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services now has a mandate to remove Social Security numbers from enrollees’ cards — a practice...
Reports forecast Medicare funding boost, dim overall outlook
By
McKnight's Staff
Apr 23, 2012
The Affordable Care Act will help Medicare save over $200 billion through 2016, according to government actuaries. But questions as to Medicare’s long-term solvency remain, another report from Social...
Inspector General blasts agency for ignoring ZPIC scrutiny
By
John Hall
Mar 19, 2015
Ignoring a four-year-old warning to more thoroughly evaluate Medicare auditing contractors is among the pile of unheeded advice that could have saved the Medicare program billions of dollars in recent...
Delay of RUGs-IV confuses calculation of nursing home reimbursement rates, regulators say
Apr 24, 2010
Federal health officials said Thursday that they still don’t have a way to calculate proper Medicare nursing home reimbursement rates after mandated changes are to take place this fall with the introduction...
AHCA, Alliance, support Obama’s renomination of Tavenner as head of CMS
By
Elizabeth Newman
Feb 08, 2013
Marilyn Tavenner, the acting administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has been renominated by President Barack Obama to permanently fill the position.
Skilled nursing facility readmissions should be an ACO quality measure, government proposes in payment...
By
Tim Mullaney
Jul 08, 2014
Accountable care organizations should be assessed on the number of people who return to a member hospital within 30 days of being discharged to a skilled nursing facility, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Failure to prepare for MDS updates in the next 10 days could be costly, expert warns
By
McKnight's Staff
Mar 21, 2012
If skilled nursing facilities are not prepared for the MDS 3.0 changes that will go into effect April 1, 2012, the consequences could be expensive, a top expert warned Wednesday.
Editor’s desk: Stars losing their luster for ‘punished’ providers
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 06, 2015
One gets the feeling that federal regulators, no matter how proper the official talk went, took a bit of pleasure in sending a message to providers when recently rebasing their star ratings.
Congressional lawmakers grill top ALJ on appeals backlog, say too many providers are being put out of...
By
Tim Mullaney
Jul 11, 2014
Efforts to root out Medicare fraud have put far too many above-board providers in auditors’ crosshairs, leading to a staggering backlog of appeals that has no easy fix, Congressional lawmakers and...
Upon further review
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 02, 2013
Instead of spending more time doing hands-on patient care, therapists who work with Medicare beneficiaries have been strapped with increased administrative tasks, sometimes leading to delayed services,...