By Lisa Gouin – The phrase “it’s a buyer’s market” is predominantly used in the real estate business, not healthcare. However, for many practices and healthcare organizations, it appears to be the perfect narrative for our changing healthcare landscape.
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By Rod Baird – CMS Draft 2017 Physician Fee Schedule reaffirms that LTC Medicine remains misunderstood by regulators and the AMA.
By John Halamka MD – I’m in New York City visiting Oscar Health, on my continuing quest to determine how best to integrate digital platforms, patient-family engagement, and care coordination in preparation for MACRA/MIPS and the transformation from fee for service to alternative payment models.
By Jeff Jones – Encouraging physicians to switch to EHRs has been a long term effort from CMS ever since the January 2009 passage of the HITECH act.
72% of hospitals with limited or no Patient-Reported Outcomes Tracking say they will implement it within 1-3 years. CMS recently began using a new yardstick to calculate how much providers should be paid: a patient’s own view of their health. First incorporated into a new CMS program designed to lower the cost of knee and hip replacements, patient-reported outcomes, or PROs, may soon become far more widespread.
By Susan Clark – Earlier this year the headlines read that Meaningful Use was dead. The collective sigh of relief was short-lived as it became apparent, as some of us already knew, that Meaningful Use wasn’t going away. It was simply changing its form to something called Advancing Care Information within the MIPS rule.
By John Halamka MD – Some have suggested that my comments over the past few months about the Meaningful Use program, MACRA/MIPS, and Certification imply that we should just give up – throw out the baby with the bath water. That’s not what I’ve written. Here’s a clarification.
At a hearing on MACRA yesterday by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) said the agency may consider a delay in implementing MACRA, acknowledging that small and rural practices may struggle with the new legislation and its current January 1, 2017 start date.
CMS released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for MACRA. Comments are due no later than 5 p.m. on June 27, 2016. You can submit or review comments on Regulations.gov. Until then, here is what is in the news along with more information, events, and commentary on the rule.