Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced a goal to shift 30% of payments to a pay-for-quality model by the end of 2016, ramping up to 50% by the end of 2018. You can view their official…
Heidi AmrineFebruary 5, 2015
As the timeline draws near for the end of Medicare Meaningful Use incentives, the ONC (Office of National Coordinator) is pondering its own origins, and how to ensure that the healthcare industry continues to move to a model of electronic…
Heidi AmrineJune 2, 2014
A new report, the second in so many months, released recently by the Office of the Inspector General for the Health and Human Services Department has warned about flaws in the oversight of the federal incentives initiative, a program they…
Heidi AmrineJanuary 15, 2014
It’s happening. As predicted, and in an earlier post by David (Impact of ACA on BHC), healthcare agencies are in serious preparatory mode; a response to the Obama administrations’ rules to expand access to mental health care across the nation.…
Heidi AmrineDecember 13, 2013
There are three major impacts that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have on the Behavioral Health Care industry (BHC). First, it will strengthen behavioral health care benefits through stronger and more complete recognition of parity. Second, we will see…
Heidi AmrineNovember 20, 2013
On May 19, 2013, The APA released the DSM-5 to coincide with its annual conference in San Francisco. There was a bit of fanfare, nothing over the top, but enough to cause conversation among the clinician attendees. Since the conference,…
Heidi AmrineJune 13, 2013
On Thursday 6/28, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the Affordable Care Act. The major impact on behavioral health care providers can be divided in to 3 categories: 1. Increased access to care Care access will increase because of…
Heidi AmrineJuly 2, 2012
In July, we wrote about the speculation that Stage 2 of the Medicare incentive program was to be delayed until 2014. On November 30th, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirmed that this would indeed be the case. The original regulation would…
Heidi AmrineDecember 2, 2011
Last week it was announced that CMS, the governing body for the new HIPAA version 5010 transaction standards, has extended the compliance deadline to March 31, 2012. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of E-Health Standards and Services…
Heidi AmrineNovember 12, 2011
