Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
As luck would have it, work interfered with my plans to have all of the industry outlooks for this year complete and published by February 1. Good news: Ground work is done now I just need to get to the writing and editing on a consistent basis. With any luck and a bit of fortitude, … Read more
Happy New Year! Now that I’m back in the saddle, so to speak, and semi-organized after a holiday break and vacation the time has come to take a look at where health care is and what is setting the stage for 2013 (at least near term). Getting started, Washington remains unbelievably mired in dysfunction. So much … Read more
With the Holidays fast approaching and me, heading into a break and a brief vacation, the time is right to recap the current health policy landscape. As the title states, now it seems as if the industry is riding on the Healthcare Polar Express; head first into the dark, cold, snowy north. Fiscal Cliff: Wow, what … Read more
The Fiscal Cliff stories are everywhere and as a result, lots of misinformation, conjecture, and supposition of deals, no deals and what happens next abound within the media. The economist in me can’t help but opine on the economics at stake but for this purpose, I’ll take only a slice of the overall issues; a … Read more
Lately I have fielded a growing number of questions regarding various applications/uses of the False Claims Act and Medicare billing inquiries. What is disconcerting about these inquiries is their source; too many from providers or provider organizations. One in particular arises out of an acquisition and this bears special note and comment which, I have … Read more
Full of turkey and the trimmings and avoiding any retail outlets, Black Friday seems perfect for a quick synopsis of what is happening with health policy. Fortunately, I’ve maintained a good inventory of “stuff” (not stuffing, though I have an inventory of that too) to cull for content. OIG on SNF Payments: This falls into my … Read more
Tonight marks Round 1 in the three-part series of presidential debates. Why Round 1 is interesting, aside from the political points and positioning each side craves (in his favor) is that this round is supposedly focused on domestic issues. Deficits, tax policy, education and yes, health policy will no doubt work through each candidate’s comments. As debates … Read more
Off the golf course (reluctantly) and back to work. Last week was full of catching up and revisiting issues and reports. As promised before I went temporarily AWOL, here’s Part I of at least two parts (maybe three) of issues that I am following. Politics and the First Tuesday in November: The conventions are done and … Read more
Finally, my plans and I collide again on a Friday afternoon and I’m somewhat back on schedule … for now. With forecasted travel next week plus a touch of R&R time, it looks like I’ll be back off-track before long. We’ll see. Not a lot different on my dashboard as this week concludes. I’m pretty much awash … Read more
Probably the biggest trend as of late is my tardiness in getting these posts out on-time…sorry. My end of the week (last week) got distorted as I needed to attend a meeting with regard to a Medicaid shift in Kansas from fee-for-service to “managed”. As I have been through these conversions or switches before, it’s … Read more