Articles and Blogs

CMS Will Create Five-Star Ratings for Hospitals and Other Health Providers The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently announced it will create a five-star rating system for hospitals, home health agencies and dialysis providers.  CMS plans to begin publishing star ratings by the end of 2014 or early 2015.  The ratings will be... READ MORE

Burwell to Replace Sebelius as the Next HHS Secretary On April 10, Kathleen Sebelius announced she is resigning as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”). President Obama will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”), as her replacement. The White House will now... READ MORE

President Signs Latest ‘Doc Fix’ Bill into Law On March 31, the Senate passed a one-year “patch” to the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) that avoids a statutorily imposed 23.7% Medicare pay cut to physicians that was set to occur on Tuesday. The legislation (H.R. 4302) also extends the 2-midnight rule and corresponding prohibition on... READ MORE

House Passes One-Year ‘Doc Fix’ On March 27, the House passed a one-year “patch” to the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) that averts a 23.7% cut to Medicare physician payment rates scheduled to start on April 1.  The House bill (H.R. 4302) also includes Medicare extenders, such as the Low Volume Hospital adjustment and outpatient therapy caps and some policies... READ MORE

CBO Scores Chairman Wyden’s SGR Bill On March 19, the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”) announced that the SGR repeal bill (S. 2110) being advanced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden will cost $180.2 billion over an 11-year period from 2014-2024. The estimate includes the cost of permanently extending several Medicare programs, such as the Low... READ MORE

SGR Repeal Passes House but DOA in Senate On Friday, the House voted to permanently repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) formula.  The Republican proposal (H.R. 4015), which was supported by 12 Democrats, pays for replacement of the Medicare physician payment formula by delaying enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate penalties for... READ MORE

HHS Releases FY 2015 Budget On March 4, HHS released its fiscal year 2015 budget as part of the Obama Administration’s overall budget request to Congress.  The HHS portion of the request is $77.1 billion, which is $3 billion less than what was requested last year.  READ MORE

CMS Releases DSH Allotments On February 27, CMS posted its fiscal year 2014 preliminary funding allotments to states for Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospitals (“DSHs”).  DSH funds were slated to be cut this year under the Affordable Act (“ACA”), but the cuts were delayed in December when Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. READ MORE

Direct Therapy Supervision Bill Introduced in the House On February 18, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) introduced H.R. 4067, a bill that will extend the moratorium on physician supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in critical access and small rural hospitals through 2014. Although CMS instituted its own moratorium on the supervision requirements, those were... READ MORE

Senate Extends Medicare Sequester Cuts On February 12, the Senate passed military pension legislation that is paid for by an extension of the 2% Medicare sequester cuts to 2024. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the one-year extension will create $8.3 billion in savings. The legislation sets aside $2.3 billion of the savings as a... READ MORE