Articles and Blogs

NATIONAL Health system and physician group alignment: The strategies that don’t work — and those that do New Senate bill seeks to reduce restrictions on telemedicine use The vital role of hospital technology selection in achieving post-merger alignment Amazon has a secret health tech team called 1492 working on medical records, virtual doc visits... READ MORE

On July 25, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a provider-friendly decision in Allina Health Services v. Price, Case No. 16-5255 (more commonly known as Allina II), reversing the negative decision the hospitals received at the district court level. The court’s reversal stems from its reasoning that the “pre-2004... READ MORE

The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently published work plans and reports detailing their intent to increase enforcement and audits of eligible providers who received meaningful use EHR incentive payments. Eligible providers should anticipate increased government scrutiny of past and future meaningful use EHR incentive payments... READ MORE

Senate Votes Down ACA Repeal Attempt In the early morning of July 28, the Senate voted down (49-51) a last ditch effort by Senate Republican leadership to repeal the ACA. Republican leadership and the White House were hoping to pass a “skinny” ACA repeal bill that would have eliminated the individual mandate and blocked... READ MORE

NATIONAL 4 legislative updates impacting ASCs Senate health care bill: Where we are now Telehealth Licensure Compact for Nurses Gets the Green Light Healthcare CEO pay climbs steadily since ACA passage Hospital Stocks Slide After HCA Healthcare’s Earnings Stumble Analysis: 6 medical specialties with at least $1.5M more ROI than investment bankers Economic Pressures... READ MORE

On July 13, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released its proposed rule for the Calendar Year (“CY”) 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (“Proposed Rule”). Among many other changes, CMS proposed to reduce the payment rate, again, for certain non-excepted (non-grandfathered) off-campus provider-based hospital departments (“PBDs”) by changing its so-called MPFS... READ MORE

This is another article in a series discussing the complete overhaul of Part 483 to Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Requirements for States and Long-Term Care Facilities (“Final Regulations”) by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”). Hall Render published an overview of Final Regulations components as well as Parts 1,... READ MORE

NATIONAL Health Care Overhaul Collapses as Two Republican Senators Defect ONC to eliminate Office of the Chief Privacy Officer in FY18 As academic hospitals lower mortality rates, should insurers reconsider excluding them? CMS Issues Proposed 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule 8 must-reads for healthcare leaders this week Nonprofit hospitals record greater revenue, less charity... READ MORE

On July 17, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published an updated Work Plan for Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2017 (“Work Plan”) that includes 14 added areas of planned or ongoing legal and investigative initiatives. OIG historically publishes the Work Plan annually, most recently in Fall 2016, and uses... READ MORE

On June 29, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a favorable advisory opinion, Advisory Opinion 17-02, concerning a hospital (the “Hospital”) outpatient facility’s proposal to waive or reduce cost-sharing amounts owed by financially needy Medicare beneficiaries for items and services furnished in connection with a clinical... READ MORE