Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Information and discussion on general federal health policy and politics – including Medicare, Health Reform and all other subjects Fed.
The news we all hoped for came forth this afternoon, wrapped with a big bow just in time for the Holiday season – RUGs IV is here to stay. The House this afternoon passed a companion version of the bill passed in the Senate yesterday. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law … Read more
Forty- five days past the October 1 conversion to MDS 3.0 and the interim RUGS IV payment groups and I still am getting a great deal of requests for analysis tools, questions on payments, liabilities, dates and rates for the Hybrid (RUGs III) groups, maps between RUGs III and RUGs IV, etc. While I lost … Read more
In the past month with October 1 looming closer, I’ve been fielding lots of questions regarding the transition from RUGs III to RUGs IV. Instead of listing the questions and trying to recap my answers (my memory is good but not that good), I’ve settled on an overview or “summary”; the core of what SNFs … Read more
On a party line vote, the House of Representatives passed legislation euphemistically coined the “jobs bill”. The $26 billion dollar legislation includes a $10 billion appropriation for state school budgets and $16 billion to continued the enhanced FMAP (Medicaid match) provided under the ARRA (Stimulus bill), set to expire on December 31. The vote was … Read more
On December 31st of this year, enhancements made to the Medicaid FMAP (Federal matching dollars) via the ARRA (Stimulus or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) are set to evaporate. In a series of bills and other legislative initiatives throughout the spring and early summer, Congress has failed to extend funding to prevent the evaporation of … Read more
In previous posts I’ve written about the need for providers in all industry sectors to fully understand the compliance and legal risks that are inherent to the appropriate industry sector, as well as to health care today in general. As someone who has been immersed in health care operations and health policy for the past … Read more
In another procedural vote on the revamped Jobs bill in the Senate, Democrats fell short of mustering 60 votes to end a Republican filibuster, effectively ending for now, legislative efforts to extend unemployment benefits. The vote count was 57 to 41 to continue debate. Dying with the extension of unemployment benefits are a series of … Read more
After a mid-week roadblock was established on a procedural vote all but derailing the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act and the integrated provisions that included a “doc fix”, the Senate doubled-back on Friday and passed a separate measure that patches the pending cuts (21%) in the physician fee schedule set for June 1. … Read more
Yesterday the Senate, via a procedural vote, set a roadblock on the continued track toward passage for the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. The original version, re-crafted by the House to lower the price tag and then sent to the Senate, found limited traction on Wednesday. Oddly enough, the House version effectively trimmed … Read more
As the Senate is set this week to take a vote on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (see my related posts), a key provision within the legislation having to do with implementation of the SNF payment system known as RUGs-IV remains in limbo. The PPACA (health care reform bill) required implementation of … Read more