Easing clinician burden under the payment tracks implemented as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) will be a priority for CMS in this year’s rulemaking, according to Kate Goodrich, MD, the agency’s chief medical officer. What won’t be changing, however, is requiring providers to meet the 2015 edition of certified electronic health record technology (CHERT) standards.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has released its March 2018 report for Congress, which includes its recommendation to eliminate the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) after only a one year of clinician reporting to the program.

A new study published in JAMA challenges some of the more common explanations for why the U.S. spends more on healthcare than other high-income countries, finding the U.S. isn’t an outlier on measures like utilization, share of primary care physicians or social services spending.

Shareholders for both CVS Health and Aetna overwhelmingly approved the proposed $69 billion deal for CVS to acquire the health insurer, bringing the merger one step closer to completion.

A pair of bills to fund the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies and create a new reinsurance program would lower monthly premiums for exchange plans by 20 to 40 percent and boost enrollment by 3.2 million people. Conservative groups, however, call the legislation a “bailout” for insurance companies.

When CMS told Idaho it couldn’t move ahead with plans to allow health insurers to offer coverage which doesn’t comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Idaho Gov. Butch Otter didn’t see it as a rejection but rather the start of a negotiation.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the financial outlook for the medical products and device industry from stable to positive, predicting that “continued product innovation” and synergies from acquisitions will drive growth of earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between 4 and 5 percent over the next 12 to 18 months.

Clinicians have until March 31 to submit 2017 performance data for the Quality Payment Program established after passage of Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). HealthExec spoke with Beth Houck, MBA, the vice president of client services at value-based program compliance and analytics software company SA Ignite, at the HIMSS18 conference in Las Vegas.