Access To Services Under Federal Rule Change Worries Health Care Providers
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nnHealth Care providers across the nation are nervously awaiting the future of the Title X funding under the Trump administration. Check out the article, below, for more information regarding the Title X funding and how it impacts populations everywhere. nnAt the age of 17, Iliana Neumann was orphaned when her mother, a single mom working two to three jobs, died at 38 of breast cancer.nn
Planned Parenthood’s Mary Ruth Duncan Health Center in Waco, TX.
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nnA lack of access to affordable preventive health care kept her mother from getting the mammogram she needed, said Neumann, now a family practice doctor at the Family Health Center in Waco.nn
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nnIn light of proposed changes to the nearly half-century-old Title X law, more low-income women could again be left in a similar position as her mother, without easy access to preventive health care that could save their life, Neumann said.nn
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nnIn 2016, 4 million patients nationwide and 166,538 in Texas, received free or low-cost health care through U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Title X programs, according to data from the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. There are 94 service sites in Texas.nn
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nnMore than 75 percent of Title X patients have incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, according to a 2017 report by the Office of Population Affairs.nn
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nnHealth care services provided include breast and cervical cancer detection, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV testing, wellness exams and contraception. Title X grants do not cover abortions, and a summary in the federal register states the proposed rule change is intended “to ensure compliance with, and enhance implementation of, the statutory requirement that none of the funds appropriated for Title X may be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”nn
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nThis article was originally posted on wacotrib.comn
Major changes are in store for the Merit-based Inventive Payment System (MIPS) in 2019, as the Trump administration pushes to reduce the record-keeping burden shouldered by clinicians. Continue reading, below, for why you should be prepared for these changes as soon as next year.nnIn a slate of proposals released late last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services outlined 10 new quality measures it would like to add to the MIPS program, plus dozens it wants to remove. The measures on the chopping block are process-based items clinicians have identified as “low-value or low-priority,” CMS said.nnThe agency also proposed changes to the MIPS “promoting interoperability” performance category. The changes are designed to improve interoperability of electronic health record (EHR) data, give patients easier access to their own health data, and align the performance category with a similar proposal for hospitals.nnThese proposed changes to the Quality Payment Program are good news, said Gerald Maccioli, MD, MBA, FCCM, chief quality officer for Envision Healthcare.nn”As a country, we continue on a positive and productive pathway to figuring out how to use quality measures to markedly improve the health of our communities, and with the proposed changes CMS is moving in the right direction,” Maccioli said in a statement.n
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hopes physicians would no longer have to predict how much longer a particular Medicare patient will need home care in order to have the service re-certified, according to a regulation they proposed Monday. nn”In an effort to make improvements to the health care delivery system and to reduce unnecessary burdens for physicians, CMS is proposing to eliminate the requirement that the certifying physician estimate how much longer skilled services are required when recertifying the need for continued home health care,” the agency said in a fact sheet about the proposed rule.nn”This proposal is responsive to industry concerns about regulatory burden reduction and could reduce claims denials that solely result from an estimation missing from the recertification statement. We estimate that this proposal would result in annualized cost savings to certifying physicians of $14 million beginning in [calendar year] 2019.”nnIn addition to eliminating that requirement, “we’re releasing several proposals to modernize Medicare by increasing access to remote patient monitoring,” CMS administrator Seema Verma said Monday on a phone call with reporters.nn”This will allow more patients to share real-time data [with providers]. Last year we made changes to allow physicians to bill for remote patient monitoring,” she said. “Home health agencies, however, couldn’t bill for the new code. So in today’s proposal we address that disparity.”nnCMS also is beginning to implement a new home infusion therapy benefit — using a transitional payment until the full benefit takes effect in 2021 — and proposing health and safety standards for home infusion therapy.n
Join us for an open house to gain more information about the changes that are coming to health care this summer. We will discuss the next phase of the Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC 2.0), Colorado’s innovative approach to improving the experience and outcomes of both physical and behavioral health care services for people who are part of Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program). Learn how these changes will affect you and your patients.
On June 11, the CDC posted the