CMS, health insurers standardize quality measures
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and major health insurance plans, in concert with physician groups and other stakeholders, on February 16 announced a new agreement to standardize measures of quality for physicians. The agreement outlines seven core measure sets to be used as a basis…
CMS extends ‘Meaningful Use’ deadline
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended the deadline to attest to achieving “Meaningful Use” in 2015 to March 11, the February 12 MedCity News reports. The original deadline had been February 29. CMS announced the extension in an e-mail to providers and health IT…
CMS issues final rule on Medicare overpayments
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on February 11 released its final rule for reporting and repaying Medicare overpayments, as required by the Affordable Care Act. The rule requires providers and suppliers to report and return any overpayments they identify within 6 years of receipt, down…
CMS extends comment period for EHR certification, quality reporting
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on February 2 extended the deadline for sending feedback on electronic health record (EHR) certification and quality reporting to February 16, 2016. The request for information is part of an effort by CMS to streamline and reduce the burden of…
Proposed rule would allow sharing, selling of Medicare data
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on January 29 issued a proposed rule that will allow organizations approved as qualified entities to confidentially share or sell analyses of Medicare and private claims data to health care providers, employers, and others. The Qualified Entity Program, authorized by the…
Outpatient facilities differ in colonoscopy quality
Editor's Note In this study, researchers from Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, calculated a risk-adjusted outcomes measure of outpatient colonoscopy, which shows important variation in quality among outpatient facilities. The outcomes measure profiles outpatient facility quality by examining rates of unplanned hospital visits in the 7 days after colonoscopy.…
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…
Nearly 209,000 healthcare providers receive 'meaningful use' penalties
Editor's Note Nearly 209,000 physicians and other healthcare providers will receive 2% cuts in their Medicare payments in 2016 for failing to meet meaningful use standards in 2014. The penalties total an estimated $600 million. Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said on January…
Reliability of cost profiles for surgery based on Medicare data
Editor's Note Medicare data on payments for inpatient surgery are a reliable measure of hospital costs for commonly performed procedures, but are less reliable for lower volume procedures, this study finds. With increased emphasis on shifting risk from payers to providers through bundled payments and accountable care organizations, hospitals are…
CMS issues revised guidelines for 'two-midnight' rule
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), on January 1, issued revised guidelines on “Reviewing Short Stay Hospital Claims for Patient Status: Admissions On or After January 1, 2016.” Under the revised exceptions policy for admissions not meeting the two-midnight benchmark, Part A payment may be appropriate…
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