Eight out of 10 eligible hospitals and 58% of eligible physicians and other medical professionals have received payments totaling $15.5 billion under the federal electronic health record incentive payment program, according to the latest CMS data.
Through June, 4,024 hospitals have shared nearly $9.2 billion dollars to adopt, implement, upgrade and/or meaningfully use certified EHRs under the Medicaid and Medicare EHR incentive payment programs created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
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New York insurance regulators today approved rates for health plan offerings on the state insurance exchange in 2014 that they say are on average more than 50% less than premiums for currently available individual-market plans.
For example, for an individual seeking coverage in Manhattan on the New York Health Benefit Exchange in 2014, a standard HMO Aetna plan that currently has a premium of $1,409 a month would cost $688 for an Aetna gold-tier plan.
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Average psychiatric inpatient hospital admissions rose more than 8% in 2011, according to an annual survey by the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, which said the need for inpatient behavioral health services continues to grow.
Released Monday, the survey collected 2011 data from 262 facilities, of which 84.5% were psychiatric hospitals and the remaining 15.5% were general hospitals with behavioral health services units.
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Boehner
A week after the Obama administration announced a yearlong delay in the healthcare reform law's employer mandate, House Republicans are demanding that the White House explain why it hasn't extended the same reprieve to individuals and families.
“Healthcare costs are going through the roof. I think Sen. Baucus had it right—this is a train wreck,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday during a news conference on Capitol Hill, referring to the Montana Democrat's limited remark about the implementation of health insurance exchanges.
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Instantaneous eligibility determination for exchange subsidies or Medicaid will not happen on Oct. 1 because of the Obama administration's decision to put off for one year requiring employers to report their employee health coverage, as well as a CMS-proposed rule published Friday loosening verification of individuals' income for the purpose of federal insurance subsidies.
In 2014, eligibility evaluations for premium tax credits and Medicaid eligibility will be based on the “honor system,” and will be performed manually by the state exchanges, rather than being based on IRS data provided to the exchanges through the new federal data hub. Experts say this will increase staff costs to manually determine eligibility. And it may increase fraud as well, thus costing the federal government more in premium subsidies.
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How can the IRS and the Obama administration simply waive a key provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by Congress?
Section 1513(d) of the law unequivocally states that the employer mandate “shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2013.” Could the administration's decision to delay the penalty on employers of more than 50 full-time employees for not providing coverage to their workers be challenged in court?
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The sailing term is luffing. When a boat points too close to the wind, its sails flap with little power and its forward progress slows.
Incentive payments for physicians and other eligible professionals to implement electronic health records moved forward in May, according to the latest report from the CMS. But after four straight months of records for the number of payments made, the May figures are rather flappy.
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Healthcare fraud may be growing, but the number of fraud cops who work to stop it is shrinking.
The Center for Public Integrity reports that HHS' Office of the Inspector General, which generates an $8 return for every dollar invested in battling fraud, is shedding staff members by the hundreds because of recent budget cuts.
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It goes without saying that people on Medicaid don't earn much money. While state programs' health benefits differ from state to state, all must have very low co-pays and deductibles to earn the federal match. The same will be true for those states that expand their Medicaid programs to cover people earning up to 138% of the poverty level.
The CMS is considering an Arkansas proposal to use its Medicaid expansion money to subsidize purchase of individual insurance coverage on the state's exchange. A CBO report concluded that buying private plans would cost the federal government a lot more than simply expanding Medicaid.
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Reagan
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has looked to an unlikely source to convince his fellow Republicans in Ohio to back Medicaid expansion to cover people the near-poor. “What would Ronald Reagan do?” he asked in an op-ed in USA Today earlier this week.
The Gipper and Republican icon “expanded Medicaid, not just once but several times,” Kasich wrote.
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Reagan
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has looked to an unlikely source to convince his fellow Republicans in Ohio to back Medicaid expansion to cover people the near-poor. “What would Ronald Reagan do?” he asked in an op-ed in USA Today earlier this week.
The Gipper and Republican icon “expanded Medicaid, not just once but several times,” Kasich wrote.
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