Health Care HeadlinesMedicare Suspends Demonstration Project on the Medical HomeDue to a proposal in health care reform legislation that would repeal a medical home demonstration program mandated by a 2006 law, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will establish a new demonstration initiative to enable Medicare to join Medicaid and private insurers in innovative state-based advanced primary care initiatives. The Tax Relief & Health Care Act of 2006 mandated that CMS conduct a demonstration in up to eight states to provide targeted, accessible, continuous, and coordinated care to Medicare beneficiaries with chronic or prolonged illnesses requiring regular medical monitoring, advising, or treatment. Subsequently, efforts to reform health care and health insurance include proposed legislative language that would have an impact on the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration. Specifically, the bill currently being considered in the House of Representatives contains a provision to repeal this demonstration and replace it with an independent practitioner-based medical home pilot and includes a second medical home pilot to evaluate community-based medical home models. As an alternative, CMS is moving forward with an administration-initiated demonstration whereby Medicare would partner with existing multi-payer medical home pilots to improve the delivery of care. This demonstration, titled the Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration, would be implemented in 2010.
PTs Eligible for Back Pay Through Class Action SuitPhysical therapists who work (or worked) for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on nights and weekends from September 1995 until the present time may be eligible for back pay and interest for days in which they used paid leave. The United States Court of Federal Claims recently ruled that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) should have paid its physical therapists the night premium pay of 10% whenever the PTs used paid leave instead of working their night schedule after 6 pm since September 5, 1995, until now. The court also ruled that the VA should have paid a Sunday premium pay of 25% to some employees whenever they used paid leave instead of working on their Sunday shifts between September 5, 1995, and October 1, 1997. To read the eligibility requirements and file a claim, go to www.VAbackpay.com. The deadline to submit a claim is February 9, 2010. |