The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
As the Affordable Care Act took effect this week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unveiled a set of measures designed to prevent doctors from defrauding federal healthcare programs.
Provider and supplier abuse of Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP contributes to part of the $55 billion dollars per year that goes missing from federally funded healthcare programs. Congress and the Obama administration built increased oversight for the programs into the healthcare reform legislation.
The Food & Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are opening up their plans for concurrent evaluations of pre-market, FDA-regulated medical products to public comment.
The two agencies are working to promote data-sharing between themselves and signed a memorandum of understanding over the proposed collaboration June 23. A partnership between FDA and Medicare could make the approval process for new drugs and devices more efficient. A 90-day public comment period on the possible collaboration begins tomorrow.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are doling out more than $6.9 million to four states as part of the federal government’s push to hasten the adoption of electronic medical records.
Massachusetts, Ohio, Hawaii and North Dakota are all in line for a piece of the action, which will go toward determining how far health information technology has penetrated their healthcare systems.
Clinical Science Laboratory Inc. agreed to pay Massachusetts $525,000 to settle allegations that the company defrauded Medicaid.
Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Medicaid fraud division found that the Mansfield, Mass.-based diagnostics firm billed the federal and state-funded social welfare program for unauthorized urine drug tests between 2004 and 2009, the AG’s office said.
Dr. Donald Berwick’s appointment as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services came as “a breath of fresh air” at the agency, according to CMS chief medical officer Dr. Barry Straube.
During a presentation on patient safety at the National Quality Colloquium today in Cambridge, Mass., Straube took a moment to note the arrival of his agency’s new head.
"Don Berwick is our administrator, finally," Straube said. "It’s a breath of fresh air to all of us."
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are planning a September meeting to examine the on- and off-label uses of bone-morphogenetic proteins used in several prominent spinal implants and procedures.
The Sept. 22 meeting of the agency’s Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee will look to answer a number of questions about the products, including "the clinical benefits and harms of on-label and off -label use of BMPs," according to its website.
President Barack Obama used his recess appointment power to install his choice to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Donald Berwick, thwarting Republican opposition to the pick.
It’s a blow to Republicans in the U.S. Senate, which is on its summer break. Senate Republicans had vowed to stall Berwick’s appointment ostensibly for his support of "rationing" healthcare. Berwick will now avoid a contentious nomination hearing and serve as chief of CMS, which has lacked a leader since 2006, until the end of 2011.
Nearly a week after a 21 percent cut to the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors went into effect, the U.S. Congress voted to stop the cut for another six months.
The leaders of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are at loggerheads over a 21 percent Medicare reimbursement rate cut that went into effect June 18, stalling a move to stave off the cut for six months.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the U.S. Senate’s vote to delay a Medicare reimbursement rate cut last week “a great disappointment,” spraying a dash of cold water on hopes that the House would approve the stay this week.
As Congress allowed a 21 percent reduction in reimbursement rates for doctors to come into effect, the number of physicians pulling out of Medicare was already on an upward trend.
The number of individuals enrolling in the program is increasing as Baby Boomers reach age 65 and qualify for Medicare.
