Policy and Politics News

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a Special Open Door Forum Oct. 6 with patient advocacy groups and other interested parties to provide information and to solicit feedback on the introduction of the 5-star rating system on Dialysis Facility Compare, set to begin in January.

Today the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched the Open Payments website that details financial transactions between medical device and drug manufacturers and group purchasing organizations and physicians and teaching hospitals. The Open Payments database was required by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a jobs package on September 18 that would repeal the 2.3% medical device tax on U.S. sales of medical devices and issue refunds for money paid by industry since the tax went into effect last year.

This blog post was originally published Sept. 15, 2014, for the Acumen Nephrology Blog. “When buying a product or service, looking at ratings can often help narrow down the choices. Some websites offer ‘star’ ratings that give information about the quality of the products and services they offer. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have the same kind of ratings when choosing a health care provider?”

As I visit with physicians around the country as part of my business, I am amazed at how many express little concern about the transition to ICD-10 diagnosis codes next year. I have categorized their comments into four categories of myths that appear to be widely believed in the renal industry.

Editor’s note: Buried in its nearly 1,700-page proposed rule on fiscal year 2015 inpatient payment policies released on April 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services included some language that sets Oct. 1, 2015, as the new ICD-10 implementation deadline. President Obama signed Medicare legislation a month earlier giving physician practices an extra year to make the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 procedure codes, but CMS got the clock ticking once again for practices to make the transition.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, stung by abuse in its reimbursement for ambulance transport to dialysis clinics and other outpatient facilities, is launching a pilot study this fall in three states that would require prior authorization of ambulance transport services before a contractor can bill Medicare.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service's announcement that it would delay the implementation of its five-star rating system for dialysis facilities until January has drawn criticism from renal groups that had hoped CMS would work to re-design the rating system and accept more input from the community.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has agreed to delay implementation of its five-star rating system for dialysis facilities until January, according to a memo received by dialysis advocacy groups this morning.

Adding more individuals to the health care rolls will raised costs by two percentage points between 2013 and 2014, and go higher each year through 2023, according to a new report released this week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary and published in Health Affairs.