The Trump Administration’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget includes extensive health-policy provisions. Medicare, Value-Based, and Related Reforms The Administration estimates that its Medicare policy reforms would save approximately $811 billion over 10 years. The Administration states that these proposals are “designed to improve value-based systems of care, exercise fiscal integrity, prom...

Medicare announced on March 1, 2019, that 800 hospitals will be paid less by Medicare this year because of high rates of infections and patient injuries. The number is the highest since the federal government five years ago launched the Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Care Act. This year, 110...

The FDA Food and Drug Administration announced a sweeping plan on March 8, 2019, to review and address the safety of surgical staplers. In a letter sent to health-care providers Friday, the FDA said it will convene an advisory meeting on the safety of the devices and signaled that it might reclassify surgical staplers to put them...

A recent convening of Alabama BCBS’ Medical Policy Group proposed a positive change to their policy on Minimally Invasive SI Joint Surgery to establish MIS SIJ fusion as medically necessary using an FDA-approved device (not specific to any one device type) when all of the following criteria are met: Pain is at least 5 on a 0 to 10...