Medicare/Medicaid News

« Previous Entries

US Senators Back Market Basket CMS Reform

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

More than 20 percent of US Senators signed a letter to CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD, asking his help in implementing the market basket index in the Medicare ASC payment system. Click here to read the letter.

At least one governor is optimistic about a US Senate vote on additional Medicaid dollars

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Gov. Chris Gregoire is optimistic she won’t have to make deep cuts to state programs following a key Senate vote on additional federal Medicaid dollars.

The Senate voted 61-38 Wednesday morning to advance the bill, and is expected to vote on it later Wednesday or Thursday. It would extend programs enacted in last year’s…

WSJ: Berwick — Bigger Than Kagan

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Barack Obama’s incredible “recess appointment” of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is probably the most significant domestic-policy personnel decision in a generation. It is more important to the direction of the country than Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Click here to read…

Obama Chooses Health Policy Scholar, AHA Trustee, as the Director for Medicare and Medicaid

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama will soon name Dr. Donald M. Berwick, an iconoclastic scholar of health policy, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that serve nearly one-third of all Americans, administration officials said Saturday.

Click here to read more.

Revised Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Infection Control Surveyor Worksheets

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

The CMS Center for Medicaid and State Operations/Survey and Certification Group released a memo March 5, 2010, regarding Revised Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Infection Control Surveyor Worksheets. Click here for the revised Infection Control Worksheets…

CMS Manual System: Revised Appendix L, “Interpretive Guidelines for Ambulatory Surgical Centers” with Exhibit 351 Infection Control Surveyor Worksheet

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Click here to read the document…

Limitation on Medicare Exception to Prohibition on Physician Referrals

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Chairman’s Mark out of the Senate Finance Committee.
The following section is located on page 211. Not finalized as of 10-8-09.

TITLE IV—TRANSPARENCY AND PROGRAM INTEGRITY

Limitation on Medicare Exception to the Prohibition on Certain Physician Referrals for Hospitals

Current Law

Physicians are generally prohibited from referring Medicare patients…

ASC Focused Training

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

State Survey Agency Training ASC Survey Process.

Click here to open the PPT…

States Fight Medicaid Expansion

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Some governors are pushing to scale back or kill proposals to expand Medicaid to provide health-care coverage to the uninsured, raising a new challenge to President Barack Obama’s effort to overhaul the system…
To read more of this article click the link below:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124571731912339159.html

Medicare Releases Proposed 2010 ASC Payments

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Medicare has released its proposed 2010 ASC payment rates and policies.  The proposed rule is available here: www.ascassociation.org/2010rule.pdf.  CMS is proposing an inflation update of 0.6% (Medicare’s estimate of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers) and is not proposing to require ASC quality reporting in 2010. The ASC Association will provide further details…

« Previous Entries