Physician practices see increased operating losses, survey shows
In a survey conducted by AMGA Consulting found an average of $31,957 in operating losses accrued by integrated health systems during 2016-2017
GAO reports $36.7 billion worth of payment errors
In a report released by the Government Accountability Office, the National Repository of Medicaid created an estimated $36.7 billion worth of payment errors in 2017.
Congress punts CHIP to 2018; Provides Temporary Funding.
In order to avoid a government shutdown, both houses of congress reached a budget deal; however, it won’t be enough to help states that are running out of money for their Children’s Health Insurance Program.
House Panel Urges Changes to Stop Decline of Rural Health Care
Georgia House members have approved a set of bold proposals to strengthen rural health care in the state. According to Georgia Health News, “The recommendations from the House Rural Development Council include expanding insurance coverage through a Medicaid “waiver’’ project and…
Georgia Open Enrollment Likely To Fall Short of Previous Year
Georgia’s ACA exchange enrollment for 2018 may fall short of the current year totals. The final number of Georgians who actually started exchange coverage in 2017 was 404,000. This year 246,270 have signed up for coverage in the state’s exchange.…
Ascension and Providence Health Talk Merger
St. Louis-based Ascension Health are in talks to merge with Renton, Washington’s Providence St. Joseph Health, which would create the largest hospital chain in America. The companies are the top two Catholic health systems in the nation. If the two…
CVS to Buy Aetna for $69 Billion
CVS Health announced Sunday that it agreed to buy Aetna for a whopping $69 billion. The deal would be considered one of the largest transactions of the year, combining the drugstore giant and one of the biggest health insurers in…
MACRA Delay: Does it even matter?
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) in late April, 2016. This release announced a fundamental overhaul of physician payment methodologies from a model reimbursing each individual service…
Merger Update
As The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed Antitrust lawsuits against both the Connecticut-based Aetna and Indianapolis-based Anthem “Mega-Mergers,” the DOJ is suggests a February start date to the trial. With Aetna aiming to complete a $37 billion acquisition of Humana…
Interoperability: The Latest Buzzword Defined
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT recently released defined interoperability measures as required by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). These measures intend to clarify what exactly it means to, “achieve widespread exchange…