On July 7, CMS announced it will stop making risk adjustment payments, which were designed as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to help insurers that accept more high-cost patients avoid major losses.

CMS bumped back the due date for providers to opt into the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Advanced model—moving the final date to Aug. 8 from Aug. 1. The move comes in amid growing concerns from those in the industry that claims data were not provided in a timely fashion.

CMS has issued an approval to Oklahoma to negotiate value-based supplemental rebate agreements directly with drug manufacturers, which could produce extra rebates for state, should clinical outcomes not be achieved.

New research published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology suggests the 2008 CMS’ policy, Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS), which penalizes hospitals for hospital-associated conditions (HAC) present at the time of the patients’ admission to the hospital has had a minimal impact on hospital reimbursement.

On Friday, a federal judge denied Kentucky’s move to impose work requirements on some Medicaid recipients. Now, one Kentucky official claims benefits will be cut if this policy isn't fixed and implemented quickly.

Kentucky was set to become the first state in the U.S. to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. But a federal judge blocked the move, which was set to take effect on Sunday—claiming the Trump administration didn’t properly consider the policy’s effect on the program’s intended aim to provide medical coverage to at-risk populations.

Federal prosecutors in California announced charges against nine individuals—including orthopedic surgeons, chiropractors and a C-suite executive—for allegedly running a 15-year scheme that submitted nearly $1 billion in fraudulent health insurance claims to the federal government, California and private insurers.

Just over four months away from the 2018 midterm elections, healthcare promises to be a major topic of discussion as campaigns head toward the finish line. According to a recent poll, 25 percent of registered voters said healthcare was the No. 1 issue for this election cycle.