The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is forever tinkering with reimbursement for various providers, usually not getting exactly the results it seeks. An example of this is given in research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine regarding changes for primary care and specialty physician office visits.
Summer is heating up and our Potpourri is smoking too, with nuggets on a silly provision in the final MLR rule; research on causes of readmissions, some within hospital control, some not; why are some hospitals more costly in treating heart failure than others and an unintended consequence of a change in dialysis drug reimbursement.
As Medicare pays more and more of the nation’s total health bill, its decisions on what products and services it will reimburse for are more significant for vendors and for the growth of the overall health bill. A new RWJ brief examines that coverage process and recommends changes.
Fall looms and brings the football season. Our Potpourri scores with nutritious bites of health information, including getting more genetic data into medical records, giving doctors price lists, the value of HIEs, reducing hospital costs, medication continuation after hospitalization and use of episode-based payments.
While health care is agog with the possibility of new care and payment methods like medical homes or ACOs and global or episode-based reimbursement, according to a Health Affairs article, neither physicians nor consumers are that eager to embrace them.