Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Medicare Disappoints Hospitals With Large Cut To Recoup Past Overpayments
Modern Healthcare: CMS Finalizes Controversial Hospital Overpayment Cut
In a final rule released Tuesday, the CMS said it will keep a controversial 1.5% cut to hospital reimbursement. Industry stakeholders had rallied against the move which aims to recoup a total of $11 billion in overpayments. Hospitals expected the cut to remain at 0.8%—as it has been ever year since 2014, two years after Congress mandated the CMS to recover funds allegedly lost as a result of incorrect coding on inpatient hospital stays. ... The CMS, however, estimated that another 0.8% reduction would have left the government $5 billion short of recouping the overpayments by its deadline of 2017. (Dickson, 8/2)
Kaiser Health News: Medicare's Readmission Penalties Hit New High
The federal government’s penalties on hospitals will reach a new high as Medicare withholds more than half a billion dollars in payments over the next year, records released Tuesday show. The government will punish more than half of the nation’s hospitals -- a total of 2,597 -- having more patients than expected return within a month. While that is about the same number penalized last year, the average penalty will increase by a fifth, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. The new penalties, which take effect in October, are based on the rehospitalization rate for patients with six common conditions. (Rau, 8/2)
