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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Reimbursement and payment models

Calendar Year (CY) 2015 Rural Health Clinic (RHC) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) Updates: Payment Rate Increases for RHCs and FQHCs Billing Under the All-Inclusive Rate System (AIR), and Urban and Rural Designations for FQHCs Billing Under the AIR
Provides updates for RHCs and FQHCs that are submitting claims to Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) for services to Medicare beneficiaries.
Date: 12/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Quality in Motion: Acting on the CMS National Quality Strategy
Provides an overview of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2022 National Quality Strategy (NQS). Describes actions CMS has taken to meet the eight NQS goals across four priority areas: outcomes and alignment, equity and engagement, safety and resiliency, and interoperability and scientific achievement. Includes rural references throughout.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Creating a Sustainable Future for Value-Based Care: A Playbook of Voluntary Best Practices for VBC Payment Arrangements
Describes themes that emerged from workgroup meetings regarding the implementation of value-based care (VBC) models, with a focus on total cost of care arrangements. Outlines voluntary best practices and domains within VBC payment arrangements for health plans, facilities, clinicians, and VBC entities to consider during the design, implementation, and evaluation of VBC participation. Includes rural information and considerations throughout.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: AHIP, American Medical Association, National Association of ACOs
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Medicare Accountable Care Organizations: Past Performance and Future Directions
Summarizes research findings about Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) from recent peer-reviewed journals, official evaluations of Medicare ACOs, and research organization reports. Describes characteristics of certain ACOs associated with greater savings and factors that limit ACOs' ability to achieve net budgetary savings for the Medicare program. Identifies policy approaches that could increase savings for Medicare through ACOs and the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Includes a brief discussion of challenges facing ACOs in rural and underserved areas.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Congressional Budget Office
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What Would Shifting To A Single-Dose HPV Vaccine Mean For Health And Access?
Discusses the potential impact of single-dose human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines on health disparities for rural residents, lower socioeconomic status patients, men, and sexual and gender minorities. Discusses relief of cost barriers for health systems and vaccine shortages.
Author(s): Matthew Najarian, Amanda F. Petrik
Citation: Health Affairs Forefront
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
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Evaluation of the Maryland Total Cost of Care Model: Progress Report
Provides an overview of the Maryland Total Cost of Care Model and evaluates the first four years of the program, 2019-2022. Explores the effects of the model on Medicare spending; service use, including preventable hospital use; and healthcare quality measures. Estimates the potential impact of switching Maryland to the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) on Medicare spending and service use, including implications for rural and safety net hospitals.
Additional links: Appendices, Findings at a Glance, Transformation Spotlight
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mathematica
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Medicare Payment for Rural or Geographically Isolated Hospitals
Displays data on Medicare payment adjustments for Sole Community Hospitals, Medicare-Dependent Hospitals, Low-Volume Hospitals, and Critical Access Hospitals. Includes information on the number of qualifying hospitals by state and eligibility criteria.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Congressional Research Service
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Community Health Centers and Value-Based Payment
Discusses the role of Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics, alternative payment models, and the challenges with implementing value-based payment.
Author(s): Janet Weiner
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
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Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS): 2024 Merit-Based Incentive Payment (MIPS) Value Pathways (MVPs) Implementation Guide
Provides an overview of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Value Pathways (MVPs), a voluntary reporting option that can be used to meet MIPS reporting requirements beginning with the 2024 performance year. Describes subgroup reporting, reporting requirements, scoring, performance feedback and public reporting, and how to register to report an MVP. Includes information on considerations and exceptions for small practices and clinicians in a rural or Health Professional Shortage Area.
Date: 04/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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March 2024 MedPAC Meeting Transcript
Transcript from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) March 2024 meeting. Covers proposed approaches and research topics related to evaluating rural hospital and clinician payment policies, an assessment of the completeness of Medicare Advantage (MA) encounter data and other sources of information about MA enrollees' healthcare utilization, a preliminary analysis of MA quality, the Acute Hospital Care at Home program, and Medicare inpatient psychiatric service trends and issues.
Additional links: Rural Hospital and Clinician Payment Policy: A Workplan for 2024–2025 - Presentation Slides
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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