Health systems have made upgrades to revenue cycle solutions one of their top priorities in recent years, but C-suite leaders may not be happy with the results when it comes to reducing denials, according to a survey from Dimensional Insight and HIMSS Analytics.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, spoke at a May 15 Washington Post event focused on health policy, offering some hints on where her agency’s Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations may be headed.

CMS has approved an extension of Maryland’s model of offering a fixed payment for most hospital services, allowing physician practices and nursing homes to voluntarily participate in a program that has saved Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP) has released the 2018 edition of its annual quality report, illustrating how deficiencies were most commonly found at the hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) it inspects.

Cerner owns 17.3 percent of the $29.7 billion global electronic health record (EHR) market, according to the annual Kalorama Information market share report, though No. 2 Epic leads the market for smaller hospitals and physician practices.

Iowa’s “supplemental payment plan” for nursing homes was rejected by CMS over concerns about having county hospitals assume the licenses of for-profit nursing homes.

Lori Reilly, executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), spoke at a panel hosted by the Alliance for Health Policy on May 15, saying the group had “serious concerns” with the plan.

Until 1980, the U.S. was similar to other countries in per capita spending and life expectancy. Princeton University sociology professor Paul Starr, PhD, said high inflation and sluggish economic growth in the late 1970s hurt countries’ abilities to afford healthcare. The difference was “other countries have been able to put limits on healthcare prices and spending” while the U.S. relied on market forces.