Here are 13 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past week, starting with the most recent.

CMS has issued its final rule on the Medicare physician fee schedule (pdf) for 2013, saying Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians will be slashed by 26.5 percent on Jan. 1, 2013, unless Congress bypasses the sustainable growth rate.

In the 2013 calendar year, hospital outpatient departments will receive Medicare payment rate increases of 1.8 percent, while ambulatory surgery center Medicare rates will increase by 0.6 percent, according to CMS' final rule (pdf) on outpatient policy and payments.

The article below is reprinted with permission from The Capital Issue, a quarterly newsletter published by Lancaster Pollard.The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, released a report dated Sept. 13, 2012 asserting the U.S. healthcare…

A reimbursement rate dispute between Clearwater, Fla.-based BayCare Health System and health insurer UnitedHealthcare could affect more than 400,000 United enrollees in the Tampa Bay area, according to a Tampa Bay Times report.

Franklin, Tenn.-based Capella Healthcare reported a net loss of $5.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2012, which was a 50 percent increase from its loss in the 2011 quarter.

Fiscal year 2012 for Cigna (pdf) just got a major boost, as the health insurer reported net income of $466 million in the third quarter — a 154 percent boost from the $183 million reported last year.

The process of bundled payments — in which hospitals, physicians, post-acute care providers and other receive a lump sum to cover a specific episode of care over an allotted period of time — is still in its infancy stages. But…

When is the last time your hospital, health system or organization looked at codes and clinical documentation to ensure everything was compliant with law and best practices?

There's a strong financial outlook for the pending "mega-merger" between Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System and Royal Oak, Mich.-based Beaumont Health System, according to a Detroit Free Press report.