CMS Proposes Expanded Medicare Telehealth Coverage

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to expand Medicare coverage for telehealth services and to make it easier for physicians to provide care through in-person home visits. The policy changes were floated in a proposed rule issued Thursday, regarding payment policies, rates and quality provisions for services provided under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule on or after Jan. 1, 2019.

MA Outperforms Traditional Medicare for People with Chronic Conditions, Study Finds

Medicare Advantage enrollees with chronic conditions had 23% fewer inpatient stays and 33% fewer emergency room visits than beneficiaries in traditional fee-for-service Medicare, according to an Avalere Health study released Wednesday.

What is MIPS? 60% of Doctors Aren't Familiar with Medicare Payment System

Most physicians treating Medicare patients don’t know how Medicare is evaluating and paying them, a new study concluded. The survey of over 700 internal medicine physicians in the spring of 2017 found that more than 60% of doctors reported little to no familiarity with the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), the new Medicare physician payment system that took effect in January 2017 and is now in its second year.

New Diabetes Diagnosis Could Benefit Household

Partners of patients who have been recently diagnosed with diabetes are more likely to improve their health behaviors than are partners of patients without the disease. That's the primary finding of a study published in the July/August issue.