Friday, February 03, 2012

TGIF

Govexec.com reports on OPM's problems in processing federal retirement claims. The other day, the FEHBlog was speaking with a veteran Congressional staffer who is expecting a wave of staffer retirements next year on Capitol Hill because Congress and many staffers shift to the health insurance exchanges in 2014. Retiring in 2013 will allow them to preserve their FEHB coverage.

Kaiser Health News has a brief survey of comments submitted to HHS on the Essential Health Benefits bulletin. Quite a hash.

Modern Healthcare reports that the AMA is appealing to HHS Secretary Sebelius to back off on ICD-10 code set implementation. The AMA complains that doctors are facing an onslaught of regulatory mandates. The AMA suggests that HHS has an opportunity to ease the burdens on physician practices by halting the implementation of ICD-10 and calling on appropriate stakeholders, including physicians, hospitals, payers to assess an appropriate replacement for ICD-9 within a reasonable time frame. Hey the ICD-11 is coming out in 2014! But seriously the problem is that Congress decided in HIPAA to embed technology in law. However, that ship has sailed. If the AMA prevails on this one, it would be a sea change (to continue the analogy).



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