The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has updated the online Medicare Provider Reimbursement Manual, modifying instructions related to the 2% reimbursement reductions resulting from sequestration.
May 02, 2013
The years of cuts to federal scientific grants has been a travesty, and I don't use that word lightly. The often-mocked duck reproduction project is an example of putting a small amount of money to fund basic scientific knowledge.
May 01, 2013
President Obama's proposed budget is dead in the water as long-term care providers see it. They stand to lose $81 billion over 10 years if the measure is approved.
April 30, 2013
By now you've heard plenty about Medicare sequestration cuts. But you might not realize that some projects not only survived cuts, but they are getting money for projects while more important ones are slashed.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will change some nursing home survey procedures in response to budget cuts from sequestration, according to memos released Tuesday. The CMS Survey & Certification budget has been reduced 5% from 2012, the agency announced.
April 02, 2013
The 2% reduction in Medicare payments known as sequestration began Monday. Providers should begin to see the impact by mid-April. The reductions will affect claims with dates of service or discharge on or after April 1, 2013.
April 01, 2013
Last month, the skilled sector figured out sequester cuts would cost providers more than $782 million in payments. Then Paul Ryan broke out the meat cleaver.
March 05, 2013
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is working on a proposed budget that would revamp the Medicare program. Republicans believe the option of turning Medicare into a voucher program may win support despite uncertainty over the effects of $85 billion in automatic spending cuts that began last Friday, the Los Angeles Times reports.
February 22, 2013
Well, here we go again. Less than three months after President Obama and Congress narrowly avoided walking off a fiscal cliff, we're bracing for Round 2. Only this time, we're all a bit worse for wear.
All eyes will be on Congress when it reconvenes Monday. Lawmakers will have just four days to act if they are to derail automatic spending cuts that would take 2% off the top of Medicare reimbursements. Senior housing and home- and community-based care funding would have it worse, both facing funding cuts of 5.1%. Many are resigned to the idea that the highly partisan Congress will not stop the "sequestration" from hitting, unlike late last year. But how badly it will ultimately affect long-term care and other services, no one really knows. There also has been speculation that lawmakers will let the sequestration cuts hit but then act to soften their blow in the near future. One silver lining for providers: Medicaid funding would not be affected by sequestration.
February 21, 2013
The co-chairs of President Barack Obama's deficit reduction commission are promoting a way to achieve $600 billion in healthcare "savings" in a new version of their deficit reduction plan. Medicare and Medicaid cuts would be targeted over the next 10 years.
January 02, 2013
Should a person be congratulated and backslapped for simply doing his or her job? That's the question that should be on people's minds today as they ponder what has happened with fiscal cliff negotiations.
December 12, 2012
As fiscal cliff negotiations continue, nine state chapters of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living have sent representatives to meet with lawmakers in the nation's capital.
November 26, 2012
We're hearing much out of Washington these days about the looming fiscal cliff. Assessments about its impact run the gamut from no big deal to very big deal. As is usually the case, the truth is probably somewhere in between
When President Obama speaks today about mandated sequestration cuts to Medicare funding, he is expected to set off the most intense period of lobbying yet among healthcare providers. Long-term care stakeholders are especially fearful of the potential compounding effect the 2% across-the-board reductions could have, given other restrictions already in play. One solution LTC lobbyists are recommending: A massive exception them from the mandate, much as the defense sector enjoys. Congress put off taking action earlier on the funding cuts but now the piper must be paid — unless lawmakers somehow act to mitigate or otherwise postpone the cuts again.
October 10, 2012
Like a pedestrian at a dangerous intersection, long-term care providers find themselves waiting for the stoplight to change when it comes to reimbursement policy.
September 17, 2012
Skilled nursing facilities in the most populous states will be the hardest hit if Congress enacts the 2% across-the-board cut in Medicare payments to providers, two new analyses predict.
September 17, 2012
Failed budget deficit negotiations in Congress could result in an $11- billion reduction in payments to Medicare providers, a government analysis released Friday predicts.
September 12, 2012
A scheduled 2% sequestration cut in federal Medicare payments to providers could result in the loss of thousands of U.S. healthcare jobs, a new report warns.
September 11, 2012
Preserving Medicaid funding remains the top priority for the largest nursing home association in the United States as Congress heads back into session this week.
August 09, 2012
The Obama Administration has one month to issue a report detailing whether Medicare providers will see 2% across-the-board cuts based on legislation signed by the president Tuesday.
July 30, 2012
Many long-term care insiders are starting to wonder if sequestration might not be so bad after all. That's because a provision in the sequestration law caps Medicare funding cuts at 2%. All things considered, a 2% reduction is starting to look better with each passing day.
May 24, 2012
A top nursing home industry executive made a case against Medicare cuts and in favor of payment and delivery reforms in long-term and post-acute care in a Senate hearing Wednesday.
