Articles and Blogs

BJC Healthcare and St. Luke’s Health System of Kansas City have announced plans to merge. The merger will result in a $10B health system with 28 hospitals, more than 100 care locations and 5,200 physicians. Henry Ford Health announced plans to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund a portion of the cost... READ MORE

NATIONAL 5 proposed medical debt solutions, per the AHA 5 recent moves from The Joint Commission 340B Program Enrollment Led to More Oncology Services at Rural Hospitals Acute care hospitals spend billions on quality data reporting: study AHA Comment Letter on Long-term Care Facility PPS AHA podcast: How Community Investment Saved a Rural Health... READ MORE

On June 8, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced the Making Care Primary Model (“Model”), a new multi-payor, voluntary primary care model tested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (“CMMI”) and aimed at strengthening the primary care infrastructure for Medicare and Medicaid patients. The Model focuses on primary... READ MORE

On June 1, 2023, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed Iowa House File 685 into law. Iowa House File 685 contains several changes to Iowa’s change of ownership laws for nursing homes. Changes to Iowa’s Change of Ownership (CHOW) Laws Iowa House File 685 creates a new Iowa Code Section 135C.7A, which adds to the... READ MORE

NATIONAL As AI advances in healthcare, industry players wrestle with its risks AHA Comments on FY 2024 Proposed Rule for Skilled Nursing Facilities AHA rebukes ‘flawed’ study on hospital finances AHA urges CMS to consider inflation, staffing in light of proposed inpatient rehab rule AHCA prepared to sue over minimum staffing mandate AMA, radiology... READ MORE

Over 500 nursing home providers gathered in Washington, DC recently to protest an upcoming minimum staffing rule that CMS is currently drafting. Industry trade groups and providers are concerned about the financial pressure they may face under the rule. KPC Promise Hospital may be evicted from Merit Health River Region Hospital in Vicksburg, MS.... READ MORE

On June 7, CMS issued a much-anticipated Final Rule addressing the placement of Medicare Advantage patient days within the Medicare DSH calculation. The Final Rule adopts a retroactive policy that will place Medicare Advantage days in the Medicare Fraction of the DSH calculation for discharges before October 1, 2013. The numerator of that fraction... READ MORE

On June 1, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu, Inc. held that the mental state required by the False Claims Act (“FCA”) refers to the defendant’s actual knowledge and subjective beliefs about the truth of claims for payment submitted to federal payors. This decision overturns the growing body of... READ MORE

On May 31, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a final rule (“Final Rule”) that withdraws the COVID vaccine requirement for health care workers of Medicare-certified and Medicaid-certified long-term care facilities (“LTC Facilities”). The Final Rule follows through on the May 1, 2023 memorandum released by the Quality, Safety &... READ MORE

NYU Langone announced plans to build a $3B teaching hospital and medical education center on the Nassau Community College campus in Garden City, New York. Mayo Clinic confirmed that it will invest $4B in its Minnesota operations after threatening to move the investment out of state during the state’s legislative session. During the legislative... READ MORE