May 13, 2016 | Legislation
The U.S. House of Representatives is passing a series of bills this week to address opioid abuse and pain management. One bill would create a national task force on opioid policies, which advocates hope will spur a major overhaul to the government’s approach to...
Apr 8, 2016 | AAHKS Business, Legislation, Medicare
Epstein Becker & Green reviewed the March Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) Report and prepared the following summary of issues AAHKS is tracking: MedPAC’s March Report includes analyses of payment adequacy in fee-for-service Medicare and makes...
Mar 25, 2016 | Advocacy, Legislation
This week, Representative Tom Price, MD (R-GA) introduced H.R. 4848, the Healthy Inpatient Procedures Act of 2016 (HIP Act) that aims to suspend operation of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) payment...
Feb 19, 2016 | Legislation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final order requiring manufacturers to submit a premarket approval application (PMA) for two types of metal-on-metal (MoM) total hip replacement devices: hip joint metal/metal semi-constrained with cemented and...
Dec 18, 2015 | Legislation
As part of a massive government funding omnibus bill passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress today, a freeze is in place on the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax for 2016 and 2017. The tax has been in place since 2013. The President is expected to sign...
Nov 20, 2015 | Advocacy, Legislation, Medicare
On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the final rule for the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement program (CJR). Seven changes were published with the final rule including a new start date of April 1, 2016, and a reduction of the...
