Here are 12 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past week, starting with the most recent.
1. After two months of failed negotiations, the across-the-board spending cuts — better known as sequestration — went into effect, putting billions of Medicare funding at risk.
2. CMS said President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has already made a sizable impact on the country's healthcare system through reduced spending and increased health outcomes.
3. A study in Annals of Emergency Medicine found Medicare and Medicaid patients are more likely than other patients to be admitted to a hospital within seven days of being discharged from an emergency department.
4. HHS' Office of Inspector General discovered Medicare has paid approximately $5.1 billion for skilled nursing facility stays that did not meet quality-of-care requirements.
5. After meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) announced the department had approved his proposal to channel federal money for Medicaid recipients into private plans offered on the state's health insurance exchange.
6. Bruce Vladeck, PhD, former CMS administrator, gave his take on Medicare and Medicaid.
7. Many statistics and numbers are thrown around when healthcare policymakers and leaders discuss Medicare's administrative costs, but an article set to appear in June's Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law aimed to alleviate the confusion associated with Medicare's overhead costs.
8. At the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and others from her department met with individual governors who had not yet agreed to expand Medicaid in their states in an effort to woo them to accept the federal money available for those expansions.
9. Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J) said he will agree to broaden the eligibility requirements for Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in exchange for federal funding, making him the eighth GOP governor to do so.
10. The American Hospital Association expressed support for a repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a Medicare cost-control entity created by President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law.
11. Gov. Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) confirmed he will not support an expansion of Medicaid in his state, instead requesting HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius grant a waiver to continue and enhance the state's IowaCare program.
12. GOP representatives of a Missouri House committee shut down an expansion of Medicaid supported by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.
1. After two months of failed negotiations, the across-the-board spending cuts — better known as sequestration — went into effect, putting billions of Medicare funding at risk.
2. CMS said President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has already made a sizable impact on the country's healthcare system through reduced spending and increased health outcomes.
3. A study in Annals of Emergency Medicine found Medicare and Medicaid patients are more likely than other patients to be admitted to a hospital within seven days of being discharged from an emergency department.
4. HHS' Office of Inspector General discovered Medicare has paid approximately $5.1 billion for skilled nursing facility stays that did not meet quality-of-care requirements.
5. After meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) announced the department had approved his proposal to channel federal money for Medicaid recipients into private plans offered on the state's health insurance exchange.
6. Bruce Vladeck, PhD, former CMS administrator, gave his take on Medicare and Medicaid.
7. Many statistics and numbers are thrown around when healthcare policymakers and leaders discuss Medicare's administrative costs, but an article set to appear in June's Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law aimed to alleviate the confusion associated with Medicare's overhead costs.
8. At the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and others from her department met with individual governors who had not yet agreed to expand Medicaid in their states in an effort to woo them to accept the federal money available for those expansions.
9. Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J) said he will agree to broaden the eligibility requirements for Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in exchange for federal funding, making him the eighth GOP governor to do so.
10. The American Hospital Association expressed support for a repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a Medicare cost-control entity created by President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law.
11. Gov. Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) confirmed he will not support an expansion of Medicaid in his state, instead requesting HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius grant a waiver to continue and enhance the state's IowaCare program.
12. GOP representatives of a Missouri House committee shut down an expansion of Medicaid supported by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.
More Articles on Medicare and Medicaid:
CMS Adds New Web Tool to Determine Timeline for EHR Participation
Defining a New Healthcare Conversation: Q&A With Former CMS Administrator Dr. Bruce Vladeck
10 Recent Medicare, Medicaid Issues — Sequestration, Florida Medicaid & More