Bipartisan group pushes for more investment, permanent telehealth for Medicare providers
By
Josh Henreckson
Jul 15, 2024
With a deadline to extend current telehealth reimbursement policies fast approaching, a bipartisan group of policy advocates is calling on legislators to make telehealth a permanent fixture of US healthcare...
Health lawyers, bioethicist call for tighter regulation of AI in prior authorizations
By
Josh Henreckson
Jul 11, 2024
While artificial intelligence promises exciting efficiency benefits, its usage in insurance prior authorizations demands wider and more holistic oversight from state and federal bodies, a trio of experts...
Dietitians urge CMS to keep extra pay for malnourished nursing home residents
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jul 11, 2024
Dietitians who work with nursing home patients are urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services not to remove critical coding that helps identify seniors either with malnutrition or at risk for...
Specialist visits to nursing homes could increase under doc pay rule proposal
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jul 12, 2024
A proposal tucked into the physician fee schedule issued last week includes a new payment mechanism that could improve follow-up care in nursing homes for post-surgical patients, including those with hip...
After ‘offensive’ attack, Parkinson and Sloan push lawmakers for solutions, not shame
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jul 09, 2024
The two largest organizations representing US nursing homes this week fired back against a pair of influential lawmakers who have tried to paint industry efforts to stop a minimum staffing rule as motivated...
Frustration, fury: Lawmakers renew push as new report skewers drug middlemen on pricing
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jul 10, 2024
An interim report issued by federal officials this week excoriated pharmacy sales middlemen over business practices that have grossly inflated drug prices — and made it harder for long-term care pharmacists...
Cigna fights nursing homes’ pending sale, citing potential for broken agreements
By
Josh Henreckson
Jun 27, 2024
Cigna has filed a legal motion objecting to the sale of a group of nursing homes as part of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The major insurer claims the sale would give the providers “carte blanche”...
Hundreds of strangers attend, provide services at funeral of veteran abandoned at nursing home
By
Eliza Mattson
Jul 03, 2024
When nursing homes find themselves with a deceased resident whom family and friends do not lay claim to, there can still be a heartwarming outcome.
Proposal to make NHSN reporting permanent bypasses provider concerns
By
Josh Henreckson
Jul 01, 2024
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would expand and extend COVID-era respiratory illness reporting requirements under a provision of the recently proposed Home Health Prospective Payment System...
Judge likely to block tool used by PointClickCare to keep competitor out of EHR system
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jun 26, 2024
A federal judge is expected to issue a preliminary ruling next week in a case that pits two post-acute technology providers against each other and raises major questions about data safety and interoperability.