Blanket ‘no-CPR’ policy can result in citation, CMS rules
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 01, 2013
Federal regulators have come out strongly against facility-wide policies that prohibit cardiopulmonary resuscitation for residents in distress.
MedPAC changing tune on hospital observation stays?
Mar 04, 2015
Long-term care providers’ hopes for eliminating hospital observation stays may be fading after some Medicare Payment Advisory Commission members said they were re-thinking their positions on changing...
Bundled pay cuts LOS, use
By
James M. Berklan
Nov 05, 2016
The Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative is already showing promising results, researchers said.
Hospitals: Change SNF pay
By
Tim Mullaney
Aug 01, 2014
The government should adopt Medicare payment policies that better support hospital-based skilled nursing facilities, the American Hospital Association urged in a recent letter to a top healthcare official.
ACOs cut costs, not quality
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 05, 2017
Post-acute care spending dropped by 9% — or about $106 per beneficiary — without a drop in quality, a study of accountable care organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program has found.
RAC battles move forward
By
Amy Novotney
Apr 06, 2015
The debate over whether Recovery Audit Contractor audits are an incentive-laced system of provider harassment or a necessary tool to redistribute misspent Medicare funds continues. Neither side appears...
Medicare appeals backlog to be fixed by 2020, HHS says
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 06, 2016
Federal health officials say tweaks to the system will enable them to eradicate a massive backlog of Medicare decision appeals in 2019. They made the prediction in a court brief filed in U.S. District...