By Gwen Cooper The recent American’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) conference in San Diego was full of insights and opinions. In our ever-changing healthcare system, providers must understand the mindset of payers to stay ahead of the new value-based care curve. I came away with the validation that hospice providers have had it right from…
Fighting to protect Medicare
By Ron Bridges AARP Kentucky has just launched a campaign to let Congress know we oppose any plan to increase Medicare costs and risk for seniors and today’s workers. We believe Kentuckians have earned Medicare by paying in with each and every paycheck. Proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system would take healthcare…
Common law and common sense: Proposed changes to the Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Medicare CoPS
by Adele Merenstein On June 16, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers (DHHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) that would update the requirements that hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAH) must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid…
Lowering preventable readmission rates for rural hospitals in Kentucky doesn’t have to be tricky.
By Tom Cox Reducing congestive heart failure readmissions is a tricky business for hospitals across the United States. According to the American Heart Association, one million people in America will be hospitalized for heart failure and about 250,000 will be back in the hospital within a month. The Affordable Care Act ushered in Medicare’s Hospital…
Kentucky ACO a leader with high performance numbers across the board for both shared savings and quality score.
Calendar year 2014 was a successful year for Kentucky Accountable Care Organizations and the Medicare beneficiaries they serve. Eight ACOs have Medicare beneficiaries residing in Kentucky assigned to them, and five of these saved Medicare significant dollars – over $46 million total. Additionally, some of these organizations showed improvements in Quality Metrics that CMS measures…
Medicare Advantage
A lot has been said about healthcare consolidation, and it’s time to sort through a central misperception about health plan mergers. Let’s start with Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage is designed to bring private sector competition to Medicare to deliver better value and greater choice for beneficiaries. That is why last week’s report from the…
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