This week’s Medicare updates include the delay of the effective date of the Advancing Care Coordination Through Episode Payment Models; Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model; and Changes to the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model; a quarterly update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule database; ICD-10 coding revisions to National Coverage Determinations; and more!
This week’s Medicare updates include Advance Care Planning implementation for OPPS claims, revision to State Operations Manual Appendix PP - incorporating revised Requirements of Participation for Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing facilities, and more!
This week’s Medicare updates include Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice (MOON) instructions, ICD-10 coding revisions to NCDs, a new “K” code for continuous positive airway pressure device bundle, and more!
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released guidance on patient access fees with little fanfare last year but the guidance, intended to clarify existing OCR regulations, became a flashpoint for controversy. The guidance states that organizations may charge a patient either a flat fee of $6.50 or follow a specific methodology for calculating the cost of making a copy of requested patient records. Although some organizations found their fee schedules out of step with OCR’s guidance, the biggest problem came from an unexpected corner: attorneys.
Even though we are set to inaugurate a new president of the United States who vowed to abolish Obamacare, I believe that Donald J. Trump will not touch provisions that address perceived cost inefficiency or quality within our healthcare system. In fact, if you’ve read CMS’ game plan for transforming healthcare published in JAMA in 2014, note that many of these provisions began with George W. Bush and have been embraced by the AMA with the implementation of MACRA.
