Employers excluding outpatient surgery from insurance plans
Editor's Note Last year, government regulators blocked large companies that employ many low-wage workers from claiming that insurance coverage with no inpatient hospital benefits met the Affordable Care Act’s rules. These same companies are now purporting to meet the rules with plans that exclude outpatient surgery, the January 21 Washington Post…
CMS: Transitioning away from ‘meaningful use’
Editor's Note The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 requires that physicians be measured on their meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) technology for purposes of determining their Medicare payments. EHR incentive programs were designed to encourage the adoption of new technology and measure the benefits for…
Editorial
Change is uppermost in people’s minds as a new year begins, so the time seems right to anticipate changes we’ll see in healthcare in 2016. To imagine some of what the future holds, consider two recent changes in how providers are being reimbursed: ICD-10, the vastly expanded DRG codes that…
Meaningful Use to end in 2016
Editor's Note The Meaningful Use program will be ending some time in 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acting administrator, Andy Slavitt, announced January 11. New value-based payment regulations demand a more streamlined regulatory approach, noted Slavitt, speaking at the J P Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco.…
FDA issues draft guidance on UDI convenience kits
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 4 issued a draft guidance: “Unique Device Identification [UDI]: Convenience Kits—Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff.” The document outlines the FDA’s interpretation that the term “convenience kit,” as defined by 21 CFR 801.3, applies solely to…
Bill allowing MU Stage 2 hardship exemptions signed into law
Editor's Note A bill designed to make it easier for healthcare providers to receive hardship exemption from financial penalties for failing to meet Stage 2 meaningful use (MU) electronic health record (EHR) requirements was signed into law on December 28, 2015, the January 4, 2016, iHealthBeat reports. The bill ensures…
Congress considers MU incentives for ASCs
Editor's Note A Bill in Congress would enable ambulatory surgery center (ASC) physicians to receive the same payment incentives for meaningful use (MU) of electronic health records (EHRs) as physicians in other settings, according to the December 15 Healthcare IT News. Currently, physicians practicing in ASCs are excluded. The Electronic…
US healthcare spending grew 5.3% in 2014
Editor's Note Overall US spending on healthcare grew 5.3%, and per-capita spending grew 4.5% in 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid reports. The share of gross domestic product allotted to healthcare spending was 17.5%, up from 17.3% in 2013. The increase in spending was primarily driven by coverage expansion…
Medical societies plead with Congress to fix ‘meaningful use’
Editor's Note A coalition of 111 medical societies on November 4 sent letters asking Senate and House leaders to take legislative action to pause Stage 3 of the electronic health records meaningful use program and revise Stage 2 so that it enables provider success, HealthData Management reports. Stage 3 requirements…
Effect of hospital safety-net burden on surgical costs, outcomes
Editor's Note In this study on the effect of patient and hospital factors on surgical outcomes and costs at safety-net hospitals, researchers found that hospital resources and not necessarily patient factors lead to inferior outcomes and increased costs. Hospital Compare data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website…
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