Policy and Politics News

MIQS has released a reporting function that generates the information required to meet the demands of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI) ESRD Core Quality audits, commonly referred to as Facility Surveys.

On Oct. 1, 2015, all health care providers will be required to switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10  for coding of medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures.

The article was first published July 23 by Kaiser Health News. Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit national health policy news service.

It's ironic that the renal community sees the Medicare dollar as inadequate to cover the cost of dialysis care, and has been caught in some cases (or at least settled...) on charges of gaming the system to make up for it, while others seem to find a good (legal) use for it.

President Barack Obama has nominated Andrew Slavitt as administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the position he has held on an interim basis since Marilyn Tavenner stepped down in February.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a proposed rule this week on how it plans to pay physicians who treat Medicare patients. But this is no ordinary proposal.

Health care insurance coverage for aliens, especially those who are categorized as unauthorized aliens (i.e., undocumented) is complex and shaped by federal rules on eligibility as well as differences in state policies and benefits. Part of the confusion and complexity is due to the fact that, at any point in time, no one knows how many unauthorized aliens are in the United States, what countries they are from, when they arrived, where they reside, and what their demographic, family, and other characteristics are. Nonetheless, in 2012, an estimated 11.7 million people in the United States were considered to be undocumented and living illegally in the United States. Nine states house 70% of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S.: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, and Texas.

End-stage renal disease patients who receive dialysis in advance of natural disasters are significantly less likely to need an emergency department visit or hospitalization in the week following the disaster and less likely to die within 30 days after the disaster, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

In its wish list to Congress on components of a new CKD bill, Kidney Care Partners says permanent reauthorizing of Special Needs Plans is vital to getting services to renal patients.

The medical device industry, including companies that make dialysis equipment and supplies, has made it clear it would like to eliminate the medical device tax, saying it stunts R&D. Congress is listening.