Majority of hospices exclude some patients due to Medicare daily fee, researchers discover
By
McKnight's Staff
Dec 06, 2012
Despite the fact that hospice is one of the fastest growing parts of Medicare, 78% of surveyed hospice operators turned away patients with the potential for high-costing care, according to a new study...
AHCA: Americans want to avoid cuts to nursing homes in ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations
By
McKnight's Staff
Dec 04, 2012
While Congressional lawmakers continue to negotiate avoiding the looming so-called fiscal cliff, a long-term care provider group reports Americans oppose cutting Medicare payments to nursing homes.
Preserving the status quo costs more than ever
By
John O'Connor
Nov 16, 2012
As $6 billion investments go, the 2012 presidential and Congressional races didn’t deliver much of a return. Except, of course, for people who like to spend money in order to keep things the way...
Dual-eligibles are happy with Medicare Part D, survey finds
By
McKnight's Staff
Oct 04, 2012
About 90% of seniors, including dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, are happy with Medicare’s prescription drug program, a new survey reveals.
Medicare’s hospital readmission penalties kick in
By
McKnight's Staff
Oct 01, 2012
On Monday, Medicare began fining nearly two-thirds of hospitals that have high numbers of patients who are readmitted within 30 days of discharge for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.
Medicare service providers cannot object to a Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor’s (RAC) decision to re-open a payment decision, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Why are more RAC audits happening? There are trillions of reasons
By
John O'Connor
Sep 10, 2012
Recovery audit contractors are stepping up their efforts to review Medicare billings. This appears to be a classic case of auditors gone wild.
Medicare auditors becoming more active, denying more claims, survey shows
By
McKnight's Staff
Aug 29, 2012
Requests for medical records by Medicare’s fraud-detecting recovery audit contractors (RACs) jumped sharply from the first- to the second-quarter of fiscal year 2012, a new survey reveals.
New app lets users search nursing home deficiencies by keyword
By
McKnight's Staff
Aug 15, 2012
A consumer-targeted Internet tool unveiled Tuesday allows users to search the federal nursing home inspection reports and deficiencies by keyword, city and facility name.
VP nominee Ryan a saving grace?
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 15, 2012
Now that the Olympics are over, let politics take center stage again. Clearly, no one is interested in winning the silver medal when it comes to the race for U.S. president. But interest in second bananas...