In late-breaking news Thursday, Kathleen Sebelius is expected to resign as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
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Pamela Tabar |
April 7, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issues several changes to 2015 pay rates amid pressure from the insurance industry.
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Pamela Tabar |
March 28, 2014
The draft legislation is here. But how much “IMPACT” would the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 have?
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A bill up for vote this week could extend the current "doc fix" and could delay the ICD-10 implementation deadlines for a year.
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From courtship to a permanent union, hospitals and long-term care facilities have a lot to gain by working together. A look at the evolution of the AC/PAC relationship.
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Pamela Tabar |
March 5, 2014
President Obama’s budget for 2015 focuses heavily on healthcare, offering new funding for some and deeper cuts for others.
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Pamela Tabar |
February 17, 2014
Long-term and post-acute providers who fail to adopt information technology may find themselves at a distinct disadvantage—or owned by someone else—down the road, one survey report suggests.
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Robert Gatty |
February 17, 2014
Medicare physicians will automatically see a 24 percent reduction in pay if Congress does not act by March 31.
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Pamela Tabar |
February 6, 2014
A bipartisan team of lawmakers has struck a deal to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) and set new guaranteed pay increase for physicians that provide services under Medicare.
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Pamela Tabar |
February 5, 2014
A new federal rule will allow senior care residents and their family designees direct access to lab test results, encouraging consumer care involvement.
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Robert Gatty |
January 14, 2014
Stakeholder input helps CMS improve the accessibility of services for seniors and people with disabilities.
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Pamela Tabar |
January 3, 2014
Privately insured smokers age 55 to 80 now have access to free annual lung cancer screenings—but the tests are not covered by Medicare.
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Does your skilled nursing facility care for residents with mental heath conditions? Medicare recovery audit contractors for mental illness issues may threaten access to care.
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Pamela Tabar |
December 30, 2013
After a mixed year of progress and stumblings, accountable care organizations are expected to surge as a care model in 2014, according to a year-over-year trends report.
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Robert Gatty |
December 19, 2013
Congress may be ready to do away with the sustainable growth rate (SGR), re-fix the “doc fix” and ditch therapy caps, but will skilled nursing become the scapegoat for the costs?
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Alan C. Horowitz |
December 12, 2013
The Office of Inspector General wants hospitalization rates to be added to CMS's nursing home quality rankings. But will the numbers tell the real story or just muddy the waters?
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Sandra Hoban |
November 26, 2013
Healthcare scams have sprung up since the October rollout of the Affordable Care Act. A California congressman's response to healthcare scams victimizing seniors in his jurisdiction is introduced as a bill in Congress.
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Pamela Tabar |
November 8, 2013
The Medicare payment updates for 2014 have been released. How can your facility best guide your own resident beneficiaries?
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Pamela Tabar |
November 6, 2013
Payers, providers and care networks are making vast efforts to combine care delivery, coverage and costs—merging control over the once-siloed segments of healthcare business. Will the post-acute care sector be the golden ticket to success or the cost-laden component that drags the system down?
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Pamela Tabar |
October 29, 2013
Bundling payments is becoming a reality for many long-term and post-acute care communities, but do you know where to start?
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Pamela Tabar |
October 24, 2013
Long-term care pharmacy giant Omnicare has agreed to pay $120 million to end a lawsuit alleging kickbacks for skilled nursing medications.
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Pamela Tabar |
October 14, 2013
Seniors with diabetes, COPD, heart disease or Alzheimer’s disease need to pay careful attention when choosing a drug coverage plan, a new study says.
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Pamela Tabar |
October 2, 2013
A South Carolina health system owes the government millions for fraudulent billings and violations of the Stark anti-kickback law for the way it funnelled business to its outpatient services.
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Pamela Tabar |
September 30, 2013
After a weekend of squabbling over the federal budget, the Senate has rejected a proposal to delay the Affordable Care Act. With the budget crisis still unsolved in the 11th hour, what would a government shutdown mean for long-term care?
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I Advance Senior Care |
September 26, 2013
Farzad Mostashari, MD, has announced that Jacob Reider, MD, will take over as acting national coordinator. The ONC also announced that David Muntz has decided to step down as principal deputy national coordinator for health IT.
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Pamela Tabar |
September 4, 2013
Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) are doing an effective job of rooting out Medicare fraud and billing errors, but federal Medicare agencies need to be more diligent about tracking cases, a new government report says.
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Pamela Tabar |
August 6, 2013
Farzad Mostashari, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) for the past four years, has announced his resignation.
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Pamela Tabar |
July 18, 2013
Following President Obama’s July 2 announcement to delay the employer insurance benefits mandate required by the ACA, the U.S. House voted today to delay the individual insurance mandate as well. But will the Senate agree?
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After one year, quality benchmarks may be up, but cost savings are not—and nine ACOs have decided to leave the Pioneer ACO program, CMS announced today.
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Lois Bowers |
July 16, 2013
More than 280 public health experts put their heads together to come up with 30 ways to promote cognitive functioning and address impairment. A new report contains advice for those working with or caring for those with dementia.
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