Click on image for a full-size view of the new CMS page.
Based on feedback from journalists, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has updated its online “Newsroom” with the goal of making it easier for reporters to find the information they need.
In a blog post, Administrator Seema Verma said the agency has “made CMS data and background, press contacts, and other information quickly accessible. We’ve also built a more robust search tool that will help serve your needs.” Continue reading
Virgil Dickson
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services threatened to ban a reporter from participating in the federal agency’s telephone news conferences after he refused to delete three sentences from a published story that apparently had rankled CMS Administrator Seema Verma.
The reporter — Virgil Dickson, Washington bureau chief for Modern Healthcare — believed the agency was making good on its threat on Thursday when, he said, his phone went mute during a CMS press call and a woman’s voice told him he was not allowed to participate. An editor later confirmed with CMS officials that he had been banned from press calls, Dickson said. Continue reading
Andy Slavitt
As we cover leadership changes at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), it is worth reflecting on the advancements at the federal agency in recent years – especially its increased focus on health information technology.
The CMS oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs, but its duties expanded over the past decade to include greater access to health information online, and to spurring technology innovation in the health sector.
Technology was a focus of outgoing Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt’s prepared final remarks to the CMS staff, delivered Thursday morning. Continue reading
Late last month we wrote about criticism leveled at the federal government’s latest bundled payment proposal.
Since then, other experts have come forward to criticize not only the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CCJR) proposal announced last month, but also the Bundled Payments for Care Initiative (BPCI) program that began in April 2013. Both programs come from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
You can find detailed criticism of CCJR from Harold Miller, president of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, on the CHQPR’s blog, and from Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of Catalyst for Payment Reform, and Francois de Brantes, executive director of the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3), on the Health Affairs blog. For an explanation of how CMS can improve the BPCI program, see this HCI3 blog post from de Brantes. Continue reading
Photo: Sheila Steele via Flickr
Here is an article that stood out amid the tidal wave of media coverage of Medicare and Medicaid’s 50th anniversary this year. It’s a piece about why Medicaid matters, posted on the Health Affairs blog.
As you read, keep in mind that the article is written by two people who strongly support the program: former Denver Health Chief Executive Patricia Gabow, who serves on the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission and on the National Governors’ Association Health Advisory Board, and former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. It is not, by and large, a critique. Continue reading
