Archive for the ‘Medicare’ Category
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Thousands of uninsured children in Louisiana will now have access to regular medical care through the State Children's Health Insurance Program, CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems announced in Baton Rouge.
Acting Administrator Weems announced approval of a request by Governor Bobby Jindal to expand the state's current SCHIP, called LaCHIP, at ...
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Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Leaders of the House and Senate Budget committees on Tuesday said that they might use the fiscal year 2009 budget reconciliation process to pass a Medicare bill with a provision to prevent a scheduled 10% reduction in physician reimbursements, CQ Today reports. According to CQ Today, use of the budget ...
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
On Thursday, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released controversial proposed rule changes that the agency said would grant states "unprecedented flexibility" in designing Medicaid programs and would require increased cost sharing for beneficiaries, CQ HealthBeat reports (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 2/21). Governors were quick to criticize the proposed ...
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Enclarity Inc., a leading healthcare information solutions company, is helping healthcare organizations meet the May Medicare deadline for HIPAA- mandated National Provider Identifier (NPI) compliance with its enhanced ProviderPoint® and new NPI Match™ solutions. The healthcare industry is looking for a way to identify and match the data in the ...
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
CMS on Thursday announced two proposed rule changes that the agency said would grant states "unprecedented flexibility" in designing Medicaid programs and would require increased cost-sharing for beneficiaries, CQ HealthBeat reports. The proposed rules, which would implement provisions of a 2006 budget reconciliation bill (PL 109-171) and a 2006 package ...
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
CMS on Wednesday sent Congress a report outlining a new "fully bundled" payment system that the agency is recommending for dialysis services, CQ HealthBeat reports. Under the current system, CMS pays for some treatment separately from payments to facilities. About 40% of the rate that Medicare pays for dialysis care ...
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Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Two new proposed rules that would give states unprecedented flexibility in designing their own Medicaid programs, including adjusting their benefit package to more closely align with beneficiary needs and requiring increased cost sharing by enrollees, were announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The proposed rules would implement ...
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Friday, February 22nd, 2008
On April 1, 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation requiring the use of tamper resistant prescription pads for Medicaid beneficiaries will go into effect. This date reflects the new requirement was delayed six months after sharp criticism from pharmacists, prescribers and state Medicaid programs.
CMS has ...
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Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Critics of Medicaid regulations that will begin to take effect on March 3 contend that implementing the rules during an economic downturn "will only worsen the fiscal situation for already strapped state budgets," CQ HealthBeat reports. Speaking at a forum sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser ...
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