FastFinance: Good faith estimate rules coming
HFMA’s FastFinance newsletter is now a podcast. Host Rich Daly discusses the most current and relevant healthcare news, delivered in an easily digestible format. Congress is pressing CMS to release long-delayed rules that would implement requirements that providers create good faith estimates for their patients. Also, this week’s Weird Number: As of July, 96.5% of…
The latest on budget talks, rural healthcare funding and a controversial payment policy
HFMA Senior Editor Nick Hut and HFMA Policy Director Shawn Stack discuss the latest in healthcare finance news. Also in this episode, Brad Dennison, HFMA’s Vice President of Content, talks with Rich Daly about the new Fast Finance podcast.
Only in America could arguments for cutting healthcare access be so artful
The phrase “only in America” usually refers to the upside of national exceptionalism, but in the context of healthcare, the meaning is often negative. That’s the case with current efforts to cut Medicaid — now the nation’s largest healthcare program in terms of enrollment — to pay for large tax cuts that will primarily benefit…
Ken Perez: The NIH research grant cuts — their magnitude, impact and the road ahead
Moves by the Trump administration to reduce HHS’s discretionary budget by 26.2% could have unintended adverse consequences. They not only could undermine the nation’s standing in the field of medical research, but also could derail progress in human health advances, promising medical findings and public health preparedness. Cuts to discretionary spending by the National Institutes…
News Briefs: Dr. Oz describes a reimagined healthcare ecosystem at HFMA event
A rapid acceleration of digital healthcare applications will be central to the looming transformation of the U.S. healthcare system, according to Mehmet Oz, MD, administrator of CMS. Oz spoke at the annual Not-for Profit Healthcare Investor Conference, sponsored by HFMA, Barclays and the American Hospital Association. He sought to explain why sweeping, systemic changes are…
News Briefs: Dr. Oz describes changes he would bring to Medicaid, Medicare Advantage
During his Senate confirmation hearing for the post of CMS administrator, Mehmet Oz, MD, was not asked about his past endorsement of a Medicare Advantage (MA) for All model, in which MA would expand to cover most Americans. He did sound willing to take action against MA insurers that allegedly overcharge the government through methods…
News Briefs: Year-end spending bill ensures no loss of funding for Medicaid DSH payments
Year-end spending bill ensures no loss of funding for Medicaid DSH payments. The continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded through mid-March includes key healthcare provisions. Passed Dec. 20 as essentially the last act of the 118th Congress, the CR ensured an $8 billion cut to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments did…
News Briefs: Hospital advocates say Medicare’s 2025 outpatient payment update should have been higher
Medicare payments to hospitals for outpatient services will rise by 2.9% in 2025, according to a final rule published Nov. 1. The update is derived from a 3.4% increase in the market basket and a reduction of 0.5 percentage points as required based on the economywide productivity adjustment. Any hospital that does not fulfill quality-reporting…
David Johnson: RFK Jr. will focus on ‘Getting America healthy again’ — and maybe it’s possible
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign for the U.S. presidency and endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump in exchange for broad inter-departmental authority to address the chronic disease epidemic plaguing the nation.
The financial state of the not-for-profit hospital sector: key takeaways from the latest medians
The financial condition of the U.S. not-for-profit (NFP) hospital industry can be described as steadily improving but still struggling, according to insights from two of the three main credit-rating agencies. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global both recently issued reports on sector medians, using audited data from 2023. The companies described an industry that has rebounded…