Download or read book Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-10-31 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medicare, the world's single largest health insurance program, covers more than 47 million Americans. Although it is a national program, it adjusts payments to hospitals and health care practitioners according to the geographic location in which they provide service, acknowledging that the cost of doing business varies around the country. Under the adjustment systems, payments in high-cost areas are increased relative to the national average, and payments in low-cost areas are reduced. In July 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare, commissioned the IOM to conduct a two-part study to recommend corrections of inaccuracies and inequities in geographic adjustments to Medicare payments. The first report examined the data sources and methods used to adjust payments, and recommended a number of changes. Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment - Phase II:Implications for Access, Quality, and Efficiency applies the first report's recommendations in order to determine their potential effect on Medicare payments to hospitals and clinical practitioners. This report also offers recommendations to improve access to efficient and appropriate levels of care. Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment - Phase II:Implications for Access, Quality, and Efficiency expresses the importance of ensuring the availability of a sufficient health care workforce to serve all beneficiaries, regardless of where they live.

Download or read book Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medicare is the largest health insurer in the United States, providing coverage for 39 million people aged 65 and older and 8 million people with disabilities, and reaching more than an estimated $500 billion in payments in 2010. Although Medicare is a national program, it adjusts fee-for-service payments according to the geographic location of a practice. While there is widespread agreement about the importance of providing accurate payments to providers, there is disagreement about how best to adjust payment based on geographic location. At the request of Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examined ways to improve the accuracy of data sources and methods used for making the geographic adjustments to payments. The IOM recommends an integrated approach that includes moving to a single source of wage and benefits data; changing to one set of payment areas; and expanding the range of occupations included in the index calculations. The first of two reports, Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment: Phase I: Improving Accuracy, assesses existing practices in regards to accuracy, criteria consistency, evidence for adjustment, sound rationale, transparency, and separate policy adjustments to reform the current payment system. Adopting the recommendations outlined in this report will mean a change in the way that the indexes are calculated, and will require a combination of legislative, rule-making, and administrative actions, as well as a period of public comment. Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment will inform the work of government agencies such as HHS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, congressional members and staff, the health care industry, national professional organizations and state medical and nursing societies, and Medicare advocacy groups.

Download or read book Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medicare is the largest health insurer in the United States, providing coverage for 39 million people aged 65 and older and 8 million people with disabilities, and reaching more than an estimated $500 billion in payments in 2010. Although Medicare is a national program, it adjusts fee-for-service payments according to the geographic location of a practice. While there is widespread agreement about the importance of providing accurate payments to providers, there is disagreement about how best to adjust payment based on geographic location. At the request of Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examined ways to improve the accuracy of data sources and methods used for making the geographic adjustments to payments. The IOM recommends an integrated approach that includes moving to a single source of wage and benefits data; changing to one set of payment areas; and expanding the range of occupations included in the index calculations. The first of two reports, Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment: Phase I: Improving Accuracy, assesses existing practices in regards to accuracy, criteria consistency, evidence for adjustment, sound rationale, transparency, and separate policy adjustments to reform the current payment system. Adopting the recommendations outlined in this report will mean a change in the way that the indexes are calculated, and will require a combination of legislative, rule-making, and administrative actions, as well as a period of public comment. Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment will inform the work of government agencies such as HHS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, congressional members and staff, the health care industry, national professional organizations and state medical and nursing societies, and Medicare advocacy groups.

Download or read book Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Medicare system adjusts fee-for-service payments to hospitals and practitioners according to the geographic location in which providers practice, recognizing that certain costs beyond providers' control vary between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas and also differ by region. The fundamental rationale for geographic adjustment is to create a payment structure that adjusts payments for input price differences that health care professionals and institutions face, such as the cost of employee compensation. Medicare provides health care coverage for 47 million Americans, including 39 million individuals who are 65 years of age and older and 8 million nonelderly people with permanent disabilities or end-stage renal disease. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Medicare payments in 2010 will reach more than $500 billion. Total per capita Medicare spending is not evenly distributed across the country, and the proportion of beneficiaries living in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas also varies from state to state. Because Medicare is a national program, policy makers and researchers working to develop and implement its payment systems have long recognized the need to adjust payment amounts to reflect input price differences across geographic areas of the United States.

Download or read book Medicare Laboratory Payment Policy written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-12-04 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clinical laboratory tests play an integral role in helping physicians diagnose and treat patients. New developments in laboratory technology offer the prospect of improvements in diagnosis and care, but will place an increased burden on the payment system. Medicare, the federal program providing coverage of health-care services for the elderly and disabled, is the largest payer of clinical laboratory services. Originally designed in the early 1980s, Medicare's payment policy methodology for outpatient laboratory services has not evolved to take into account technology, market, and regulatory changes, and is now outdated. This report examines the current Medicare payment methodology for outpatient clinical laboratory services in the context of environmental and technological trends, evaluates payment policy alternatives, and makes recommendations to improve the system.

Download or read book Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment Phase I Improving Accuracy Second Edition written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Medicaid Hospital Payment written by Jennifer Baldwin and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rewarding Provider Performance written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-02-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third installment in the Pathways to Quality Health Care series, Rewarding Provider Performance: Aligning Incentives in Medicare, continues to address the timely topic of the quality of health care in America. Each volume in the series effectively evaluates specific policy approaches within the context of improving the current operational framework of the health care system. The theme of this particular book is the staged introduction of pay for performance into Medicare. Pay for performance is a strategy that financially rewards health care providers for delivering high-quality care. Building on the findings and recommendations described in the two companion editions, Performance Measurement and Medicare's Quality Improvement Organization Program, this book offers options for implementing payment incentives to provide better value for America's health care investments. This book features conclusions and recommendations that will be useful to all stakeholders concerned with improving the quality and performance of the nation's health care system in both the public and private sectors.

Download or read book Rationalizing Rural Area Classifications for the Economic Research Service written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-02-05 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA/ERS) maintains four highly related but distinct geographic classification systems to designate areas by the degree to which they are rural. The original urban-rural code scheme was developed by the ERS in the 1970s. Rural America today is very different from the rural America of 1970 described in the first rural classification report. At that time migration to cities and poverty among the people left behind was a central concern. The more rural a residence, the more likely a person was to live in poverty, and this relationship held true regardless of age or race. Since the 1970s the interstate highway system was completed and broadband was developed. Services have become more consolidated into larger centers. Some of the traditional rural industries, farming and mining, have prospered, and there has been rural amenity-based in-migration. Many major structural and economic changes have occurred during this period. These factors have resulted in a quite different rural economy and society since 1970. In April 2015, the Committee on National Statistics convened a workshop to explore the data, estimation, and policy issues for rationalizing the multiple classifications of rural areas currently in use by the Economic Research Service (ERS). Participants aimed to help ERS make decisions regarding the generation of a county rural-urban scale for public use, taking into consideration the changed social and economic environment. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Download or read book The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-12-20 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.

Download or read book Medicare physician fees geographic adjustment indices are valid in design but data and methods need refinement report to congressional committees written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report to the Congress Medicare Payment Policy written by Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Medicare s Geographic Cost Adjustors written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Health and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Medicare Physician Payments Concerns about Spending Target System Prompt Interest in Considering Reforms written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Alternative Geographic Adjustments in Medicare Payment to HMOs written by W. Pete Welch and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report and Recommendations to the Secretary U S Department of Health and Human Services written by United States. Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: