This month's policy signals for health systems:
Bipartisan bill to cap physician pay cuts
Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-NC-03) introduces bill backed by bipartisan colleagues to stabilize physician pay in Medicare: The Provider Reimbursement Stability Act (H.R. 8163) would give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) more flexibility to adjust physician payments, while introducing a cap on the scale of year-to-year rate changes in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The bill will increase a longstanding budget-neutrality threshold from $20 million to $54.3 million, along with a mechanism to increase the threshold every 5 years to keep up with the pace of medical expense inflation. The bill has been referred to a committee. Read more at Fierce Healthcare and Modern Healthcare.
Treasury issues advisory on healthcare fraud schemes
The Department of the Treasury is issuing an Advisory urging financial institutions to be vigilant in identifying fraud schemes targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal and state health care benefit programs: The Advisory was published last week by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and follows Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent’s trip to Minnesota earlier in the year, where he announced the Department’s efforts to crack down on fraudulent activity. FinCEN’s Advisory highlights the threat of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and how they exploit health care benefit programs nationwide, directing concerned whistleblowers to a recently established webpage to report tips on fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations. Read the Treasury’s Advisory and more at ReedSmith.
Cedar releases report on patient debt collection trends
Health tech company Cedar releases report on healthcare collections: Cedar’s “Healthcare Financial Experience Study” analyzes survey responses from 4,150 patients across the U.S. and data harvested from the company’s partners and qualitative patient research. Through their findings, Cedar identified that nearly 40% of healthcare collections now come from uninsured patients, while also analyzing how long patients delay making payments and why. Access Cedar’s report and read more at Fierce Healthcare.