The bipartisan No Surprises Act, which took effect Jan. 1, is protecting patients from the most egregious forms of surprise medical bills.
With final rules expected to be announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) later this summer, the American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, is once again calling upon its nationwide network of cardiovascular disease patients and grassroots advocates to urge the White House and Congress to ensure meaningful enforcement of the law.
The data is leaking out on 2023 health care insurance plans and for already shell-shocked Americans, the outlook calls for a big boost in health insurance prices. That’s especially the case for consumers buying policies on government healthcare exchanges.
Danilo Manimtim’s vision was cloudy and blurred — and it was growing worse. The 73-year-old retired orthopedic surgeon in Fresno, California, knew it was time for cataract surgery. "It's like car tires wearing out because you drive on them so much," he said.
Following up on their June 2021 report calling for fewer Medicare alternative payment models (APM), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) offered strategies in their recent 2022 report to streamline Medicare APMs. They recommended that CMS move away from testing a large number of model tracks and instead operate on a small number permanently, so that efforts could shift to a larger scale. Most importantly, they suggested that APMs could be centered around a single population-based model.
When Erin Williams-Reavis faced a $3,500 surgery bill, the hospital offered to let her pay in $300 monthly installments. It was too much, said Williams-Reavis, 44, who lives in Greensboro, about an hour west of the state capital. Her hours as a personal assistant had been cut, and she and her husband were behind on bills, even requesting a forbearance on their mortgage.
A new report from Sg2 utilized patient-level data and local market trends to forecast patient volumes over the next decade. Notably, while hospital inpatient volume is set to recover to pre-pandemic levels, it is only expected to grow 2% past that. Hospital inpatient days will increase at an 8% growth rate, however, and tertiary patient days at 17%, due to an expected increase in chronic conditions.
