The Trump Administration has proposed major changes in the way Medicare pays doctors, as well in the ways hospitals disclose prices. Among the immediate adjustments: The government would pay more for some procedures such as kidney dialysis and less for others such as hip and knee replacements. It would also make major revisions to an ambitious new payment model that [...]
Georgia Congressman Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, is a bundle of contradictions when it comes to Medicare. He certainly is not alone. Trump and congressional Republicans have sent their own very mixed signals about Medicare. The House GOP very much wants to turn the program into what it calls premium [...]
It looks like nursing homes will continue to be able to require residents and their families to agree in advance to arbitrate disputes with the facilities, despite an attempt by federal regulators to curb the practice. Late last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a major rewrite of its nursing home regulations. Most of those rules [...]
My friend Dan Timmel died last week. You probably didn’t know him. But if you are a frail older adult or a younger person with disabilities who is a Medicaid recipient, a family member of someone on Medicaid, or a taxpayer, you owe Dan a great debt. Dan was a senior career official on the Medicaid side of the Centers [...]
Discharge planning is often a broken link in the chain of care for hospital patients. Older adults and others with complex care needs nearly always need follow-up after they are discharged. They’ll almost certainly have to take new medications. They may need bandages changed after surgery, or physical therapy after a stroke. Unfortunately, they and their families rarely get the [...]
One-third of nursing homes residents are admitted to the hospital at least once each year, and half of those admissions could be avoided. Preventing them could protect hundreds of thousands of older adults from potential harm and save Medicare billions of dollars. The problem is neither new nor surprising. But it is tough to fix. Last week, the federal Centers [...]
Federal regulations are finally catching up with a decade of seismic change in the delivery of Medicaid services. More than 650 pages of proposed new rules are aimed at overseeing managed care, which has become the standard health care delivery system for low-income adults and children, and is now being expanded to include both medical care and long-term supports and [...]
Everybody wants to do a better job coordinating care for the frail elderly and younger adults with disabilities who have extensive medical and personal care needs. But just how to do it is becoming increasingly controversial—especially on Capitol Hill. The current flashpoint is an aggressive new Obama Administration initiative aimed at improving care and cutting costs for those who are [...]