CMS Announces Qualifying APM Participant Determinations

Oct 6, 2017 | CMS

Based on eligible clinician participation in the 2017 Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced qualifying APM participant (QP) determinations. Physicians can look up their QP status based on calculations...

CMS Issues Programmatic Waivers for Disaster Areas

Sep 22, 2017 | CMS

The Federal declarations of a State of Emergency and Public Health Emergency for the United States Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and State of Florida allows for CMS programmatic waivers based on Section 1135 of the Social Security Act. These waivers will...

AAHKS Comments on Two CMS Proposed Rules

Sep 15, 2017 | CMS, Legislation, Medicare

AAHKS has commented on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) CY 2018 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems Proposed Rule (HOPPS) and the CY 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule (MPFS). In...

CMS Reduces CJR Mandatory Participation

Aug 18, 2017 | Bundled Payments, CMS

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new proposed rule that would reduce the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model from 67 to 34 and allow the remaining 33 to opt-in to...

Patrick Conway Leaves CMS

Aug 18, 2017 | CMS

CMS has announced that Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality and CMS Chief Medical Officer will leave the agency to serve as CEO for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. Dr. Conway received the American Medical Association’s...

Initial Trends Identified in CMS Proposed Rule

Jul 1, 2017 | CMS

On June 20, 2017, CMS released a 1,058-page proposed rule to update the payment policies, rates, and quality provisions under the two tracks of the Medicare Quality Payment Program (QPP): the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment...