Federal Government Agencies Accelerate Review of COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund Expenditures On August 27, 2021, the Biden administration announced it has hired several separate outside contractors to police the billions in COVID-19 grants it sent to hospitals and health care providers. The contracts, which have not previously been reported, are a sign that the federal...
Senate Passes Massive Infrastructure Bill That Includes Several Health Care Provisions On August 10, 2021, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 69-31, passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, H.R. 3684. The 2,702-page legislation contains several relevant health care–related provisions, including a delay of the implementation of the rule eliminating the Anti-Kickback Statute safe harbor...
CMS Releases 2022 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule On August 2, 2021, CMS published a final rule for the 2022 Calendar Year Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) The final rule, effective October 1, 2021, authorizes additional payments for diagnostics and therapies to treat COVID-19 during the current public health emergency, and beyond....
Read the Summer 2021 Issue of “Vertebral Columns” Looking for the latest highlights in spine surgery? This issue of Vertebral Columns explores the increasing use of virtual reality as a training tool, what’s coming for cervical disc arthroplasty, the Mazor vs ExcelsiusGPS robotic systems, intraoperative ultrasonography, the occurrence of venous thromboembolism in spine surgery,...