12 Recent Medicare, Medicaid Issues

Here are 12 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past week, starting with the most recent.

1. CMS issued a proposed rule increasing Medicare payments to skilled nursing facilities by 1.4 percent in FY 2014.

2. An issue brief from the American Hospital Association found Medicare patients are getting sicker and are visiting the emergency department more often.

3. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found Medicaid enrollment helps patients' mental health, financial well-being and utilization of healthcare services, but the program does not show evidence of improved health outcomes.

4. CMS paid more than $290 million to 1,016 eligible providers and hospitals under the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record incentive programs in the first three months of 2013.

5. West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced his support of an expanded Medicaid program in his state, becoming the last Democratic governor to confirm or imply his approval for the provision of the health law.

6. Florida's GOP-led legislature successfully blocked several bills to expand Medicaid in the state as the legislative session draws to a close for the year.

7 CMS proposed a rule that would increase Medicare payments to hospices by 1.1 percent, or $180 million, in FY 2014.

8. Washington, D.C., awarded a $542 million Medicaid contract to health insurance startup Thrive Health Plans.

9. A report from the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at The Brookings Institution outlined reforms in four areas that could save the U.S. healthcare system $300 billion in the next decade, and almost $1 trillion in the next two decades.

10. Medicare paid for most of the total amount spent on treating hypertension among adults in 2010.

11. Colorado lawmakers passed a bill to expand the state's Medicaid program.

12. CMS issued its proposed rule for acute-care hospitals paid under the inpatient prospective payment system, recommending Medicare rates to hospitals increase by 0.8 percent, or $27 million, in fiscal year 2014.

More Articles on Medicare and Medicaid:

To Expand or Not to Expand: States' Medicaid Dilemma and the Private Alternative
Price Transparency: Why It's an Issue & Where Hospitals Fit in
Report: U.S. Healthcare System Can Save $560B in Public, Private Reforms

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