Deficits and Health Care: Economics Redux

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

SNF Update

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

Hospice Update

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