Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
On October 1, the SNF industry received a 1.1% reduction in Medicare payments. On October 13th, the Senate Finance Committee passed its version of Healthcare Reform, commonly known as the Baucus Bill. While the Baucus Bill is the least penalizing to the industry, of the major health reform bills waiting in Congress, it is destined for the Senate shredder … Read more
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
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