The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized an increase of the average benchmark payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by 5.06%, or $25 billion, on Monday. It is nearly a three-percentage-point increase over the advance notice proposed in the waning days of the Biden administration and will be seen as favorable to payers. The CMS said this is due to the effective growth...

The amount of auditing of RPM companies has increased in the last two years, two lawyers told Fierce Healthcare, and the audits have gotten more aggressive and informed. The audits have ranged from mundane billing denials by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to criminal investigations by the Department of Justice (DOJ). But some RPM companies...

The Drug Enforcement Administration has pushed back(PDF) the effective dates of two rules that expand prescribing of buprenorphine via telehealth and controlled substance prescribing for patients at the Department of Veterans Affairs until December 31, 2025. The two telehealth final rules were supposed to go into effect on...

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given a federal court the clearest look yet at the number of probationary workers fired under the Trump administration, and how many have been reinstated so far, but fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees say they have still not been contacted or provided a status update on their...

Oracle's federal electronic health record system experience a widespread outage on Tuesday March 4 that impacted VA medical facilities across the country, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. All users of Oracle's federal EHR, including those at VA, Department of Defense, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sites,...

Over the last year, 18 rural hospitals closed or converted to an operating model that excludes inpatient care, according to a new analysis from the Chartis Center for Rural Health. That brings the total number of closures since 2010 to 182. During this week’s Value-Based Payment Summit, Janice Walters, M.S.H.A., executive director of the Rural Health Care Redesign Center in Harrisburg,...

Less than a week after reports surfaced that the Justice Department was investigating UnitedHealth Group for billing practices in Medicare Advantage, a key senator is also putting pressure on the company. The Wall Street JournalreportedTuesday that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty pushing for a detailed look at how the company handles billing in...

The opening session at the ViVE conference, taking place this week at Nashville’s Music City Center, on Feb. 17, had speakers acknowledging the complex and challenging policy and operational landscape around healthcare information technology adoption, along with statements strongly affirming the role of advancing technology promising to help clinicians and patient care organizations deliver...

The US Department of Veterans Affairs has restarted a project to implement Oracle electronic health records in its hospitals after the project was suspended in 2023. The new payments relate toa $300 million agreementfor optimization of the electronic health records (EHR) management system anda $29 million dealfor identity and access management support and enhancement, published...

In 2022, the Biden Administration enacted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at reducing healthcare costs. Among its most significant provisions was the ability for Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, a move that was hailed as a potential game-changer for lowering healthcare expenses. While the immediate effects of the IRA’s...