HEALTH CARE WEEK IN REVIEW: CMS Releases Four 2022 Medicare Payment Rules, Roughly 1 In 7 People Got Low Acuity Care Via Telehealth Instead Of Going To The ER, Medicare-reliant Hospitals More Likely To Face Closure Or Acquisition, Healthcare Data Breaches On The Rise

Here's The Latest in Health Care:
• CMS recently released four final Medicare payment rules for the 2022 fiscal year. The rules cover newly increased rates and other policies for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), hospice agencies, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), and inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs). Read More
• Telehealth use has significantly helped cut down on the number of low acuity emergency department visits, helping address a persistent problem that hospitals have faced for years. According to a new survey, nearly one in seven people who used telehealth said they would have gone to the ED or urgent care if the service was not available. Read More
• According to a new study, hospitals with a higher share of Medicare patients had lower profits and were more likely to be acquired or close compared with hospitals less dependent on Medicare. Read More
• Healthcare data breaches are on the rise. A recent breach report highlights the fragility of our online infrastructure and found that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a wide range of vulnerabilities for bad actors to take advantage of. In fact, the healthcare industry experienced a more than 50 percent increase in the total number of patient records exposed compared with 2019. Read More
Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture, medical billing, revenue cycle management, telehealth, secure messaging, clinical communication, and care navigation software.