Lower Clinical Spending Needed in BPCI-A Program to Avoid Losses
Hospitals and physician groups participating in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI-A) program would have had to reduce clinical spending by 3.7 percent to 8.2 percent during the...Froedtert Health, ThedaCare Announce Merger Plans
Froedtert Health and ThedaCare have signed a letter of intent to merge in hopes of creating a roughly $5 billion health system with 18 hospitals in Wisconsin. The two Wisconsin-based non-profit health...Q1 2023 Healthcare Merger and Acquisition Activity Generated $12.4B
Healthcare merger and acquisition activity generated $12.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023, marking a significant year-over-year increase, according to a Kaufman Hall report. The M&A...NAACOS Offers Guidance for Hybrid Primary Care Payment Model in MSSP
The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) is calling on CMS to establish a hybrid primary care payment model in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) using two possible approaches that will...Hospital, Registered Nurse Turnover Rates Remained High in 2022
While healthcare employment is slowly bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic, the registered nurse (RN) turnover rate in 2022 was 22.5 percent, resulting in hospitals losing millions of dollars,...Tax Breaks Exceeded Charity Care Spending for Nonprofit Hospitals
Nonprofit hospitals received more in tax breaks than they spent on charity care in 2020, with the combined fair share deficit totaling $14.2 billion, according to a report from the Lown Institute. The...Major Credit Bureaus Remove Medical Debt Collections Under $500
Three major credit bureaus are giving consumers a break when it comes to medical debt. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion jointly announced yesterday that any medical debt collection with an initial...CMS Releases FY24 IPPS Proposed Rule, Seeks to Boost Rates by 2.8%
CMS has released a proposed rule for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS). The proposed rule would update hospital payment rates by 2.8 percent next fiscal year and...61% of Providers Plan to Outsource Revenue Cycle Management Tasks
As staffing shortages and financial challenges persist, healthcare providers are increasingly considering outsourcing revenue cycle management processes, according to a study from CWH Advisors and...Clinician-Owned Practices Improve Quality Without the Burnout
Workplace cultural and structural factors in clinician-owned practices that result in lower levels of staff burnout may also enable quality of care improvements, according to a recent study in JAMA...KLAS: Healthcare Orgs Satisfied with Eligibility, Enrollment Services
Healthcare organizations are generally satisfied with their vendor partners that provide eligibility and enrollment services, but there is room for firms to improve their staff quality, charging...Lawmakers Want to Tie Physician Payment Updates to Inflation
Several lawmakers are seeking to tie physician payment updates in Medicare to inflation to prevent potential physician shortage issues. Representatives Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA-25), Larry Bucshon, MD...How Do Rural Hospitals Survive When Facing Financial Instability?
As rural hospitals face financial instability, many facilities have persevered and remained open on their own, while others have experienced mergers or closures, a study published in Health Affairs...Hospital Chargemaster Heavily Influences Cash Prices, Payer Rates
While neither patients nor payers typically pay what hospitals charge for services, a new Health Affairs study finds that those hospital chargemaster rates still matter. Researchers at Johns Hopkins...CMS Proposes a 3.7% Boost in Skilled Nursing Facility Payments
CMS has issued a proposed rule that includes a 3.7 percent payment update for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and changes to the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and the SNF Value-Based Purchasing...Community-Level Social Risk Adjustment Did Not Address Payment Disparities
Despite the notion that social risk adjustment may improve health equity in value-based payment models, incorporating community-level social risk factors into Medicare risk adjustment did little to...Proposed Rule to Boost Medicare Inpatient Rehab Payments by 3%
A new proposed rule from CMS would increase payments to inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) by $335 million next fiscal year. The draft regulation would also update quality reporting and new...AHA, AHIP Urge Supreme Court to Uphold False Claims Act Ruling
The American Hospital Association (AHA) and AHIP have filed an amicus brief challenging the federal government’s interpretation of the False Claims Act, stating that it would adversely impact...CMS Proposes 2.8% Medicare Hospice Payment Bump
Medicare hospice payments could grow by as much as 2.8 percent, or $720 million, next year under a rule recently proposed by CMS. The federal agency released the proposed rule on Friday. It seeks to...Sponsored by Brault Practice Solutions
