Monthly Archives: December 2017

Today's Top StoryU.S. healthcare spending growth slowed in 2016 A report from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary finds that growth in overall healthcare spending in the United States decelerated to 4.3 percent in 2016, following 5.8 percent growth in 2015. The report notes that during 2014 and 2015, the healthcare-spending share of the economy increased 0.5 percent from 17.2 percent in 2013 to 17.7 percent in 2015. Other findings from the [...]

Today's Top Story Tax legislation bills may impact healthcare According to the Associated Press, tax reform legislation currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress could significantly impact a number of healthcare issues. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed competing tax bills on party-line votes, and Republican legislators from both houses have started reconciling the two bills. Issues that could affect healthcare—such as elimination of the Affordable Care Act individual mandate, medical expense deductions, drug [...]

Today's Top Story Survey identifies barriers to adoption of value-based payments A report released by the American Academy of Family Physicians suggests that, despite progress, serious barriers may slow the adoption of value-based payment systems. The survey of family physicians notes the following factors: lack of staff time to implement care functions that support value-based payment no uniform payer reports on performance lack of standardization of performance measures and metrics unpredictability of revenue stream In addition, the survey [...]

Today's Top Story CMS reduces number of providers required to participate in CJR, cancels hip fracture bundled payment model The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a final rule and interim final rule with comment period that alters the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) Model and cancels mandatory hip fracture and cardiac bundled payment models. The agency reduced the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in CJR from 67 to 34 and made [...]