Statin revenues could drop by as much as $7 billion by 2018 as generics permeate the market, according to an analysis by GBI Research.

The costs of on- and off-pump CABG are similar at one year, according to an analysis of the ROOBY study, but only if late conversions are excluded. Including late conversions elevated off-pump CABG costs by $3,600. The results were presented as a late-breaking clinical trial abstract on Jan. 28 at the Society for Thoracic Surgeons (STS) meeting in Los Angeles.

Large teaching hospitals and safety-net hospitals are more likely to be penalized under Medicare’s readmissions reduction program, according to an analysis that was published as a research letter Jan. 23 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The outlook for nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. in 2013 continues to be negative, according to Moody's Investors Service. Although revenue growth will remain positive, Moody reported that it expects the rate of this growth to diminish.

Federal District Judge Terrance Boyle refused to accept a deferred prosecution agreement between the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina and WakeMed Health and Hospitals of Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 17 that would allow WakeMed to settle criminal allegations of falsely billing Medicare for cardiac procedures.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC), the body charged with advising Congress about Medicare reimbursement issues, recommended that the hospital Medicare payment update for 2014 contain a 1 percent increase for inpatient and outpatient services.

The cost of uncompensated care to U.S. hospitals totaled $41.1 billion in 2011, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA). That was almost $2 billion more in bad debt and charity care costs than was posted in 2010.

Since passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has progressively implemented requirements that call for value-based purchasing (VBP) in all major payment systems in Medicare. With the Supreme Court’s decision in 2012 and the re-election of President Barack Obama and a Democratic Senate, the PPACA is firmly ensconced as “the law of the land” and all aspects of the VBP programs will move forward.