Articles and Blogs

NATIONAL 100 of the largest hospitals and health systems in America | 2020 10 hospitals closing departments, ending services AHA urges CMS to delay radiation oncology model, changes to BPCI Advanced AMA: 4 ways providers can use social media to improve public health Amazon eyeing expansion of Amazon Care virtual health care clinics Court... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently finalized the End-Stage Renal Disease (“ESRD”) Treatment Choices Model (the “ETC Model”), which is a mandatory payment model intended to reduce Medicare expenditures by encouraging greater use of home dialysis and kidney transplants for patients with chronic kidney disease, while maintaining or improving the quality... READ MORE

The push for increased telehealth coverage continues during the COVID-19 public health emergency (“PHE”). On October 14, 2020, CMS added 11 new telehealth services available for Medicare reimbursement during the PHE. The newly added services include cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services and certain neurostimulator analysis and programming services. Since the beginning of the PHE,... READ MORE

CMS issued a press release on October 15, 2020, announcing a reduction in payment for COVID-19 high throughput lab testing that is not completed within two calendar days of specimen collection. In an effort to encourage timely test results, CMS announced that starting January 1, 2021, Medicare will pay $100 only to laboratories that... READ MORE

NATIONAL CMS, AAOS launching bundled payment initiative in January CMS unveils relaxed repayment terms for COVID-19 loans Coronavirus cases set new single-day records in six U.S. states and worldwide FDA Issues Guidance for Emergency Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Hospitals in new or resurgent COVID-19 hotspots enact stricter visitation policies How 3 hospitals maintained a... READ MORE

Many health systems have discussed the role they can play in addressing social determinants of health (“SDOH”), yet by February 2020, only a reported 9.1% of health systems had announced a plan to invest in SDOH. A plan is essential to create meaningful change and to define measurable goals in SDOH. As health systems... READ MORE

On October 6, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a memorandum updating the COVID-19 reporting requirements for hospitals and critical access hospitals (together “Hospitals”) and setting forth the enforcement process CMS will follow to address Hospitals’ non-compliance with the reporting requirements (“Memorandum”). The Memorandum can be found here. Details on... READ MORE

NATIONAL 9 digital healthcare execs discuss importance of interpersonal interactions between providers, patients 6 health system execs on supply chain challenges, advice to peers 6 must-know coding updates in 2020 ACR ‘alarmed’ by number of small practices included in CMS’ new mandatory payment model CHIME names 2020 ‘Most Wired’ hospitals Citing COVID-19, providers push... READ MORE

Last week, HHS announced a Phase 3 round of general distributions from The Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (“Relief Fund”). That announcement was further discussed in our client alert and describes an additional $20 billion to be distributed, with applications opening this past Monday, October 5. On Monday, October 5, HHS updated... READ MORE

With children across the country returning to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming flu season approaching, families can now look to licensed pharmacists to administer childhood vaccines. The United States has experienced a drastic decrease in vaccination rates among children as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an attempt to address... READ MORE