The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a draft version of MDS 3.0 last week. CMS disclosed details about it at a Long-Term Care Open Door Forum.

Medicaid is underfunding state long-term care efforts by $4.2 billion this year, according to a new analysis of Medicaid financing released Wednesday by the American Health Care Association.

Government spending on Medicaid is expected to reach $674 billion by 2017, with annual spending projected to outpace U.S. economic growth, according to a report released Friday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

A Florida pilot program designed to give Medicare beneficiaries more choice and control concerning their healthcare plans has led to more confusion than anything else, according to a recent review by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Congress's advisory panel on Medicare matters is examining rehospitalization rates of nursing home residents. Staff members for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission told commissioners last week that rehospitalization rates are much higher at freestanding skilled nursing facilities than at hospital-based SNFs.

While the nursing home industry can be proud of its accomplishments in Washington over the last year, many challenges await. These include card-check legislation in Congress and a problematic five-star rating system, Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, said Monday at the 59th Annual Convention & Expo's Opening General Session in Nashville.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday announced new efforts to help reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare system.

After the release of a recent Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General report on nursing home violations, states are coming out in defense of their records.

Health officials on Tuesday issued new voluntary guidelines for nursing homes to help them avert fraud and abuse in Medicaid, Medicare and other federal healthcare programs. The 17-page long document was published in the Federal Register and complements guidance issued in 2000.

A new survey of state officials shows that increasing budget pressures could lead states to start clicking down their Medicaid programs. Most have resisted cuts thus far, but the odds of that continuing are becoming less and less likely, according to a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.