Medicare

Dermatological hospital readmission rates have remained constant, leading researchers to suggest improvements in both outpatient management of skin diseases and inpatient care.

The government took a bold step in payment reform in July with the announcement of five new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation-designed payment models for physicians and dialysis providers. Ultimately, this movement away from fee-for-service payment toward value-based reimbursement is a fundamental step in the process of aligning health care providers around the holistic care for patients, especially upstream in chronic kidney disease.

Hospitalizations related to ambulatory care-sensitive conditions, or ACSCs — such as dehydration and UTIs — are typically avoidable when patients receive quality primary care. Although evidence suggests the rates of inpatient hospitalizations for ACSCs have decreased in recent years, the rates of hospitalizations “for observation,” which do not count as inpatient admissions, have increased, according to researchers.

On Wednesday, the Trump Administration made chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy available to all Medicare beneficiaries via a long-awaited final coverage decision made by the CMS.

The American College of Rheumatology praised lawmakers in Congress for lessening a proposed cut to Medicare physician payments but also called for “long-term systemic policy changes” to ensure future stability.