On October 9, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced proposed changes to modernize and clarify the regulations that interpret the Physician Self-Referral Law (the “Stark Law”) and the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The proposed rules seek to provide greater certainty for healthcare providers participating in value-based arrangements and providing coordinated care for pat...
The US Senate, in proposed legislation, advocated for greater reimbursement for device-based opioid alternatives. Language buried in the Senate’s fiscal 2020 Labor-HHS appropriations report, released Wednesday, directs CMS to boost Medicare reimbursement for device-based opioid alternatives. The appropriations legislation, which has been mired in a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over a...
Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services quality measures might not measure or capture the actual care patients receive, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO studied how the agency decides what quality measures to develop and use. It also evaluated how CMS monitors its funding for quality measurement activities. The GAO report stated that...
CMS Administrator Seema Verma has tasked her Patients Over Paperwork team with exploring what CMS can do to improve Prior Authorization (PA) burdens as part of the eighth topic addressed under the initiative. In addition, stakeholders like ISASS and other medical specialty societies have submitted input in writing on the issue. ISASS has been a...