Tag: Marilyn Tavenner

WASHINGTON -CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, announced she will be stepping down from her post next month in an email to CMS staff. “It is with sadness and mixed emotions that I write to tell you that February will be my last month serving as the administrator for CMS,” she wrote. During her five-year tenure at the agency, Tavenner oversaw the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the expansion of Medicaid.

WASHINGTON - The Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) will defer assignments for hearings—possibly up to 28 months, according to a recent notice. Requests for hearings received after July 15, 2013, will be entered into the agency's case processing system and held until there is room on an Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) docket for adjudication. When a request is assigned, a notice will be sent, according to the notice. The ALJs have been backlogged for more than a year, thanks...

BALTIMORE - Peter Budetti, the first director of the CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI), is retiring. His last day with CMS is Wednesday, Sept. 11. Elizabeth Handley will take over as acting director, Bloomberg reports. Administrator Marilyn Tavenner wrote, in an internal email, “Peter, with the support of a strong team, realigned the structure of program integrity in the agency and CPI took on the challenge of moving beyond pay-and-chase antifraud activities to preventing fraud before...

WASHINGTON - Reps. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, will hold a press conference Thursday, June 13, to increase the pressure on CMS to delay Round 2 of competitive bidding, according to a news release from AAHomecare.The pair of lawmakers, who are spearheading the push to delay the implementation of Round 2, plan to announce that a bipartisan majority of 226 members of the House of Representatives have signed their “Dear Colleague” letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.Thompson...

WASHINGTON - Amid growing concerns on Capitol Hill, CMS officials have been asked to report to Senate staff on Round 2 of competitive bidding at a briefing on Tuesday.“The pressure's on,” said Jay Witter, vice president of government affairs for AAHomecare. “The licensure issue is one that CMS has not been able to answer.”The Maryland Office of Healthcare Quality confirmed recently that there are more than 100 contract suppliers that don't meet licensure requirements...

WASHINGTON - CMS says its anti-fraud efforts in 2011 and 2012 have recovered more than $14.9 billion in healthcare fraud, judgments, settlements and administrative impositions, according to a press release.A big reason for the agency's success: new fraud-fighting powers and tools in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).Since March 2011, when the ACA was signed into law, the agency has revoked the ability of 14,663 providers to bill the Medicare program, compared with 6,307 revocations in the two years prior....

BALTIMORE - A proposed clinical template for lower limb prostheses overlooks the way care is delivered, say industry stakeholders.“They still don't seem to want to allow the prosthetists to have as much input as they probably should have in terms of documenting medical necessity,” said Ryan Ball, director of state policy for VGM & Associates.CMS has posted a draft of the template on its website. The template features a series of prompts that would help physicians understand documentation...

WASHINGTON - With Congress on recess until June 3, industry stakeholders hope extending the deadline for a “Dear Colleague” letter will allow time to get more signatures. The letter to CMS, co-authored by Reps. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, urges lawmakers and CMS to support an administrative delay for Round 2 of competitive bidding. "It should provide the opportunity to get well over 100 signatures," said Seth Johnson, vice president of government affairs for...

WASHINGTON - In a rare display of bipartisanship, the U.S. Senate confirmed Marilyn Tavenner as the first full-fledged administrator for CMS since 2006, according to multiple reports. Senators voted 91-7 to back President Barack Obama's nominee. Tavenner, a former nurse and hospital company executive, has served as acting CMS administrator since late 2010. Her confirmation is the first for a CMS administrator since Dr. Mark McClellan, who left the job in 2006 after serving under President George...

WASHINGTON - Marilyn Tavenner, Barack Obama's nominee to oversee CMS, received the unanimous backing of the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, according an article from Reuters. The panel's support could pave the way for a vote by the full Senate that could make Tavenner the program's first official administrator since 2006. A former hospital company executive and nurse, Tavenner has been CMS's acting administrator since 2011, and has broad bipartisan support. Among Tavenner's supporters is House...