Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Information and discussion on general federal health policy and politics – including Medicare, Health Reform and all other subjects Fed.
After weeks/months of meetings, Senator Baucus of Montana representing the “gang of six” (three Democrats and three Republicans) released the Senate Finance Committee version of “healthcare reform”. What started as a bi-partisan sub-committee alternative to the House version (HR 3200) ended as essentially, a Baucus bill; legislation lacking any real support from Senate Democrats and … Read more
I know this is supposed to be a blog about healthcare issues, primarily that which falls in the post-acute, long-term care and senior housing world but some stuff in the news right now is just too hard to ignore. After all, healthcare reform does affect long-term care and post-acute care directly and economics, especially the … Read more
Not unexpectedly, the politicians are all a “buzz” about healthcare reform right now. The President even did a live radio/television talk-show to “clarify” what healthcare reform is really about; to translate as it were. From CNN to Fox to certainly every Sunday talk show, politicians or members of the President’s cabinet are trying desperately to … Read more
Recess – when I was a kid it was the best part of school. Recess was a period of task abandonment; a temporary reprieve from the classroom engagement and the pedagogy. Unfortunately for Congress, recess means a time to confront constituents and to engage on the home front. For members of the House facing early … Read more
As is/was the case with SNFs and Hospices, CMS and Congress have formulated a series of proposed rules and legislation that reflects the ongoing trend under Medicare of reimbursement reductions. On July 30 (followed by the August 6th Federal Register publication), CMS announced its proposed rule for FY 2010 for Home Health PPS reimbursement and … Read more
What looks like the beginning to a rough late-summer/early-fall period, there are now numerous pending and current policy and reimbursement events that are breaking in the SNF industry. From the July 31 CMS announcement regarding Medicare payment reductions to the release of the marked-up House Tri-Committee bill on Health Care Reform (HR 3200) on the … Read more
In March, I wrote about the MedPAC recommendations to change the Medicare Hospice program and payment system. Yesterday, CMS announced the final (2010) payment for Hospice as well as the implementation structure of some key MedPAC recommendations. The final rule will be published August 6th in the Federal Register. For FY 2010 (commencing October 1), … Read more
This seemed to be a natural successor topic to my last post, “Why Quality Matters”; principally arising out of recent press releases from the OIG. For example, in June the OIG reported that it had recovered $2.4 Billion in fraud, waste and abuse. In July, an OIG release reported that a Nursing Home Executive was banned … Read more
On Monday I wrote about the abyss that is the current state of healthcare reform in Washington – the enormous black hole that the U.S. will certainly fall in if we as a nation, progress along the path chosen by Mr. Obama and his party. Succinctly put, the expense of Federalizing healthcare in the U.S. combined … Read more
Fresh off an oversea tour and a visit to France no less, the President returns promising to become more engaged and agressive in getting his healthcare plan passed; ideally says he, by this summer. The reasons Mr. Obama proffers are many and urgent. Chief among the reasons is that the system (healthcare) is broke (and … Read more