The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has quietly reversed itself on the new standards for Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (IDTFs). Transmittal 187, which established new standards for IDTFs and was scheduled to be effective as of February 26, 2007, was rescinded without explanation. Therefore, some of the more significant changes, such as:
§ …
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pleased to announce that the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) webpage is now available.
On December 20, 2006 the President signed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA). Section 101 under Title I authorizes the establishment of a physician quality reporting system …
The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance regarding rollovers from Flexible Spending Arrangements (FSAs) and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (RHAs) to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The guidance is necessary because Health Savings Accounts are typically not available to individuals who are covered by standard FSAs and HRAs. The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced significant changes to the regulatory requirements for operating independent diagnostic testing facilities (IDTFs) on January 26, 2007, which new rules will become affective February 26, 2007. These new requirements affect the:
§ Performance standards for operation.
§ The requirements for both interpreting and supervising physicians.…
For an amusing satire about managed care, check out www.calhealthplan.org, which was created by California consumer activists ( who else?) to highlight perceived managed care abuses. The Nurse Avenger video game is mildly amusing, but the theme song & video, the "Pirates of the Health Care-ibbean" is biting and hysterical, unless you’re a managed…
A California court recently concluded that exhaustion of administrative remedies was not required as a condition precedent to reinstatement of a physician. The summary description of this holding is somewhat misleading, because it is commonly accepted that physicians must exhaust their administrative remedies, i.e., the medical staff peer review hearing process, before pursuing either civil or…
