More Cliffs Ahead: Providers Brace For Additional Budgetary and Regulatory Challenges

More Cliffs Ahead

“I think E&M will be talked about a great deal” in upcoming negotiations, says Dan Boston, Executive Vice President and Principal at Health Policy Source, Inc., a Washington-based consulting firm. And while he says hospitals were successful in maneuvering around this issue in the just-ended fiscal-cliff discussions, he thinks this payment area has implications beyond hospitals.

“It's not a hospital payment issue, but an integrated-delivery issue. If we're moving toward more integration and more coordination of care and holding folks accountable, you can't cut them for that,” he says. “What the federal government can do is make sure that the people receiving the benefit are meeting the criteria.”

Modern Healthcare, January 12, 2013