Medical Billing Blog
Medicare Telemedicine Health Care Provider Fact Sheet
MedPAC Releases Report to Congress – Stay the Course on Physician Payments
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent Congressional agency established to advise Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program, released their latest report to Congress in early
March.
SGR is the Top Healthcare Issue for Congress in 2015
According to several Congressional leaders, preventing a 21% cut in Medicare Physician Fee Schedule payments in 2015 under the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula remains the top healthcare priority for Congress this year. The latest SGR cut is scheduled to take effect when the current short-term patch expires at midnight on March 31st.
And speaking of MedPAC, each year the Commission releases a June report advising Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program including broader changes in health care delivery and the market for health care services. The latest June report focuses on making the Medicare program more consistent by reforming Medicare payment models, risk adjustment payments, primary care service payments, and select condition payments.
Health Subcommittee Holds Hearing to Improve Medicare Oversight
On April 30th, the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health held a hearing to solicit input from the HHS Inspector General’s office (OIG), CMS and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on ways to improve Medicare oversight and reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Gloria Jarmon, Deputy Inspector General for Audit Services, Office of Inspector General, testified on behalf of HHS; Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., Deputy Administrator and Director, Center for Program Integrity, testified on behalf of CMS; and Kathy King, Director, Health Care testified on behalf of GAO.
CMS Releases Data on Medicare Physician Data
This week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released raw data on how individual medical providers treat America’s seniors. This is a historical publication into how Medicare expenditures are distributed because access has been denied since 1979, when a Florida court issued a permanent injunction barring the government form releasing information about Medicare Part B payments to individual physicians in any manner that would allow the doctor to be identified. However, in 2011, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal successfully sued to overturn the injunction.