Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Recently, a reader asked me a question regarding which states still use RUGs III for their Medicaid case-mix payments. At the time, I honestly didn’t know the answer completely. Based on a little research, I’ve outlined the RUGs status as I currently know it, across the states that utilize Medicaid case-mix. Note: Not all states use … Read more
Rarely do I write about a specific company as my work doesn’t focus on individual companies per se, more on industries and the policy/economics of health care industry segments. Occasionally, a company’s story typifies an industry flaw or trend or the same is illustrative of an endemic issue (Vitas for example). Amedisys’ continued saga of … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post covering the Home Health PPS Final Rule for 2014. As I was writing that post, I simultaneously reviewed the Gentiva/Harden deal plus the recent quarterly earnings of Amedisys and Almost Family (plus their acquisition of SunCrest HealthCare). The earnings reports plus the analytics from these two … Read more
With all the news and among the conjecture, punditry and analysis that fits any twenty-four hour news cycle, I wondered with a few colleagues the other day, how predictable the events current with Obamacare were. Americans being who we are, our collective political memories and policy memories are short. I too, often find even the recent … Read more
This is the second post of a four-part series on the status and implications of the continuing roll-forward/roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). In this post, the context is the implications for providers, given the evolving state of the ACA and some of the current uncertainty of its future. Important to note: Affirmatively, the … Read more
A number of my regular readers and clients routinely ask for my thoughts/analysis on where the Reform Act/Affordable Care Act/Obamacare is at, particularly in-light of the recent one-year delay in the employer mandate. Given the complexity of this subject and the scope of the overall law, a single post won’t cover the subject adequately. In compiling … Read more
In spite of best intentions, wicked winter weather across the middle U.S. has kept me off-track a bit and thus, I haven’t quite met my goal of having these all published by Valentine’s Day. Below is my and my firm’s consensus Outlook on the Home Health industry for calendar year 2013 (part FY 2014). Summary … Read more
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