In This Issue:

- CMS ISSUES FINAL RULE ON DIRECT ACCESS OF LAB TEST RESULTS BY PATIENTS:

On February 3, 2014, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule that permits patients or their representatives to have direct access to the results of their lab tests...

- HEARING HELD ON PENNSYLVANIA’S NOVEL “ANY WILLING INSURER” LEGISLATION:

On December 18, 2013, the Pennsylvania House Health Committee held a hearing on Pennsylvania House Bills 1621 and 1622, two bills that would require that any health provider in the state that operates as part of an integrated delivery system (i.e., a health system that also has its own health plan, as many larger systems do) contract with “any willing insurer” desiring to contract with the provider...

- THE 2014 OIG WORK PLAN: SELECT PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO PHYSICIAN PRACTICES:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recent issued its 2014 Work Plan outlining its intended review activities of HHS Programs for 2014. This article summarizes certain portions of the 2014 Work Plan that are of considerable importance to physician practices...

- MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR RESCINDS EXECUTIVE ORDER REQUIRING BLUE CROSS OF MISSISSIPPI TO GRANT “IN NETWORK” STATUS TO EXCLUDED HOSPITALS:

In early November, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant rescinded an Executive Order (Executive Order 1327), issued only weeks earlier, that would have compelled Blue Cross of Mississippi to continue to offer “in-network” status to several Mississippi hospitals with whom Blue Cross had terminated its relationship as a result of contract disputes...

- CMS REPORT SHOWS SOME MEDICARE COST SAVINGS THROUGH ACO MODEL:

A report published in late January 2014 by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrated, in the words of CMS, “encouraging results” in the reduction of healthcare costs to Medicare and improvement in the quality of care for over 5 million Medicare beneficiaries under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)....