Tag:medicare
MACRA 101: MIPS and the Advancing Care Information Category
Alanna Kroeker Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017 This article will spell out the details for the Advancing Care Information (ACI) category of the Merit Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). This category accounts for 25% of a clinician’s overall composite score and is intended to replace the current Meaningful Use …
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MACRA 101: MIPS and the Resource Use Category
Bherti Patel Associate Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2018 As previously discussed, MIPS will streamline Medicare’s current quality measures into one composite score from four reporting categories: Quality, Resource Use, Advancing Care Information, and Clinical Practice Improvement. This score will then be used to determine the reimbursement to a clinician based …
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MACRA 101: MIPS and the Quality Reporting Category
Christine Bulgozdi Associate Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2018 The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (“MIPS”) is one of the two different payment methods that MACRA will use for eligible clinicians. MIPS replaces the existing fee-for-service model and is expected to be the payment track that most clinicians take. Clinicians will be evaluated …
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Understanding Medicare Documentation Requirements
Brittany Tomkies Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017 With more than one billion claims processed annually by the Medicare Fee-For Service (FFS) Program for more than one million health care professionals, understanding and identifying common errors encountered by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) and other contractors such as Recovery Auditors (RACs) …
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CMS Issues New Rule to Tighten Provider Enrollment
On September 5, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released its final rule with comments on Program Integrity Enhancements to the Provider Enrollment Process (“ The Program Integrity Enhancements”). The final rule gives CMS the power to revoke Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollments of providers or suppliers who have an “affiliation” with previously sanctioned entities, even if those providers and suppliers aren’t directly violating any existing rules themselves. CMS says that this new authority will help to “stop fraud before it happens.”
CMS Issues New Rigid COVID-19 Requirements for Skilled Nursing Facilities
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released new guidance for skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”) as part of a larger rulemaking agenda for healthcare institutions in the throes of the current public health emergency with COVID-19. CMS has also detailed the fines for non-compliance with the new COVID-19 requirements for SNFs and other healthcare institutions such as hospitals and laboratories.
Rural Hospitals in Crisis Receive a Boost to Value-Based Care Model from New CMS CHART Model
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) Innovation Center (“CMMI”) recently announced a new model for health care providers in rural areas to receive payment from the federal government. The Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (“CHART”) initiative aims to improve rural health care while promoting the Trump Administration’s push to shift health care providers into a more expansive value-based payment model.
Stemming the Tide of Medical Information Data Breaches
Protected Health Information is seeing a surge of breaches on the cyber security front due to contractor error. It’s also impacting the most consumers in comparison to other data breaches and, in some cases, has the power to cause chaos in national infrastructure. Advances in technology and compliance measures can stem the tide and protect the most valuable information in consumers lives.
Electronic Health Record Compliance Measures Benefit Patient Centered Care
In a time when data breaches occur fairly frequently, whether it’s credit card information being stolen from department stores or a credit reporting bureau breach affecting hundreds of millions of customers, keeping personal information private seems to get harder every day. That fact may give patients pause when they are asked to sign up for an electronic health record account. A 2017 survey listed electronic health record management as one of patients top concerns. Changes in recent years have led to changes in compliance measures that make electronic health records security an added benefit to patients and ensure the continued increase of their adoption.
OIG Work Plan on Nursing Facility Staffing Levels
In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) made an additional focus in its Work Plan for the oversight of nursing facility staffing levels. These changes were made in the light of backlash from a July 2018 news article which reported that nearly 1,400 nursing homes had fewer qualified staff on duty than they were required or failed altogether to provide reliable staffing information to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”).