Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Verma Urges Hospitals To Get On Board With Value-Based Payments As Lesser Of Two Evils Compared To 'Medicare For All'
Modern Healthcare: CMS' Verma: Accept Value-Based Payment Or Risk Medicare For All
CMS Administrator Seema Verma on Tuesday called on hospitals to get on board with the Trump administration's transparency and value-based payment policies, warning they could face tougher times and more government insurance competition if they resist. Verma said the status quo is unacceptable and must change because Americans are "fed up" with high healthcare costs and surprise billing. She cautioned that these issues have led to calls for more government involvement in healthcare, which would ultimately harm hospitals' bottom lines and increase regulatory burden. (Brady, 9/10)
Modern Healthcare: New Value-Based Payments For Post-Acute Care
The drive for value-based payments continues to accelerate as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission on Friday proposed a program that would tie quality to payments for skilled nursing facilities, home health services, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals. The program builds on the commission's previous work to develop a standard set of measures for post-acute care settings, as well as define and apply a set of principles that use Medicare payments to improve the quality of care. (Brady, 9/6)
In other news from CMS —
Modern Healthcare: Calls Mount For CMS To Address Patient Overlap Across Pay Models
BJC HealthCare is in the CMS’ flagship accountable care organization program and nine of its hospitals participate in the federal agency’s flagship bundled-payments program. Recently, the St. Louis-based not-for-profit health system learned that quite a few patients it treats under bundles are also attributed to its ACO. (Bannow, 9/10)
