News & Updates on Legal, Policy, & Business Issues Facing the Health Care Industry in Iowa
The House of Representatives took what the House of Medicine rightfully can call a historic vote late in the evening of March 26 to really,…
Update – Insurance Commissioner requests CoOportunity liquidation – district court to decide in late February
Concluding that insufficient funds currently exist to meet its obligations to pay medical claims, Iowa Insurance Commissioner, Nick Gerhart, filed a petition in Polk County District Court on January 29, 2015, concluding that further efforts toward rehabilitation of CoOportunity would…
In what came as a surprise to many, Iowa’s Insurance Commissioner, Nick Gerhart, filed a petition in Polk County District Court on December 23, seeking court authorization under state insurance laws to assume management authority over CoOportunity Health, Inc., toward the end of rehabilitating the company’s substantially declining financial stability. The district court …
On December 21, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began issuing letters to physicians and other health professionals eligible to participate in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program notifying them of a 1% Medicare payment penalty they will incur in 2015 for…
CMS announced in November the formation of a new Office of Enterprise Data Analytics (OEDA) and named Niall Brennan as the OEDA’s chief data officer. The OEDA’s overarching goal is to harness CMS’ vast data resources for internal and external use as CMS continues to move away from volume-based to value-based care.
Brennan, who has…
PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE MEDICARE SHARED SAVINGS PROGRAM (MSSP) – COMMENTS DUE BY FEBRUARY 6 – SHARED SAVINGS BY IOWA ACOS
On December 1, 2014, CMS released a rule proposing several significant changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and calling for input on options under consideration to encourage greater participation in two-sided risk …