Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mark B. McClellan uttered the words physician lobbyists have been laboring for weeks to get him to say—that the Bush administration will support legislation replacing scheduled cuts to Medicare physician payments with increases in 2006 and 2007. But now Congress will have to scramble over the next few weeks to find the bucks to pay for it—up to $20 billion—because CMS won't help pay for the increases administratively. Read more »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is awarding $8.85 million to hospitals that showed measurable improvements during the first year of the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration, officials said. The pay-for-performance demonstration is the first time Medicare has awarded financial bonuses linked to the quality of care provided, CMS said in a news release. The demonstration also provides statistical evidence that the model works to improve the quality of health care, agency officials said. Read more »
The House passed a $49.9 billion spending cut bill, with a visibly relieved Republican leadership team corralling just enough moderates to support a package of cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, and student loans. The bill (HR 4241) passed 217–215 at 1:42 a.m. Friday, after Mark Kennedy of Minnesota and Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe L. Barton of Texas voted at the very end to put it over the top. No Democrats voted for it. Read more »
Backed by "surprising" poll findings, a panel convened by the National Academy for Social Insurance (NASI) is making a pitch for greater federal financing of long-term care. Seventy percent of Americans over the age of 50 expressed support for more federal financing, and 53 percent said addressing long-term care costs should be a high priority for the nation, NASI said. Read more »
The Senate passed bipartisan legislation aimed at increasing the use of electronic medical records to prevent errors and increase efficiency in the health care system. "The Senate has taken a huge step into the information age, finally," said Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who has touted the bill as one of his top priorities. "This bill will do as much as anything we have done in this Congress . . . to cut waste and inefficiency out of our health care system." Read more »