Category: Modern Healthcare

Starting in 2020, Medicare Part D plans can tweak their formularies so that different drugs can be covered for a defined set of indications, the CMS said. The agency said that could help the plans negotiate lower prices.

RAND Corp. researchers suggested that hospital rating sites could be improved by allowing consumers to adjust the weight of quality measures used. But healthcare consumer analysts still don’t think it can solve fundamental issues with the sites.

California wants to become the first state to prohibit its health department from imposing a Medicaid work requirement or other conservative policies favored by the Trump administration.

Not-for-profit hospitals have begun to rein in labor and supply expenses, but revenue is declining at a quicker pace and has created a widening, unsustainable chasm, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The CMS has received more than 300 suggestions on how it can reduce the burden of anti-kickback laws on providers, ranging from revising what is considered a referral to giving providers protection for unintentional violations.

The Senate opioid package includes a provision to roll back the ban on providers sharing addiction treatment records, but the lawmakers will punt the so-called IMD exclusion until they confer with their House peers.

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Curae Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, citing declining revenue and higher-than-expected costs for electronic health records. It will keep operating three Mississippi hospitals until it can sell them.

Cleveland’s MetroHealth System, which will pursue damages related to the opioid epidemic in Cuyahoga County, has taken on the public health crisis through a number of initiatives.

Researchers say the release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2016 guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain was associated with an acceleration in the decline of such prescriptions.

The CMS began searching for a company that can help develop a web portal that allows consumers to compare prices for healthcare services, weeks after creating a rule that pushes hospitals to be more transparent about what they charge patients.