1. Meaningful use funds hospital are receiving from the federal government are a “timely source” of money contributing to revenue growth, but bondholders must keep in mind the funds are temporary and only partially offset the technology costs, according to a report from Fitch Ratings.
2. CMS increased Medicare payments to four Rhode Island hospitals — Kent Hospital in Warwick, Newport (R.I.) Hospital, South County Hospital in Wakefield and The Westerly (R.I.) Hospital — by $7.1 million to provide more consistency across the state in reimbursement rates.
3. New York officially filed a Medicaid 115 waiver with the federal government to reinvest $10 billion of Medicaid savings back into the state’s healthcare system.
4. States that opt into the Medicaid expansion can later decide to drop out, according to Cindy Mann, CMS deputy administrator and director of the CMS Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services.
5. Roughly 31 percent of physicians in a sample of 4,326 said they would not accept new Medicaid patients in 2011, with most attributing this decision to the payor’s low reimbursement.
6. The Premier healthcare alliance launched a new collaborative to help health systems apply for the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
7. A recent report from the Massachusetts Office of Inspector General found that Medicaid managed care plans paid hospitals and physicians up to 38 percent more than Medicaid fee-for-service plans, which raised “serious questions about the viability” of a managed care structure’s ability to save healthcare costs.
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