CMS on July 31 finalized its Inpatient Prospective Payment System and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System rule for fiscal 2027, setting a 2.3% payment increase for acute care and long-term care hospitals and locking in the first mandatory, nationwide episode-based payment model for joint replacements. “Knee, hip, and ankle replacements are important for helping seniors preserve their mobility and…

A growing emphasis to meet patients where they’re at has led health systems and hospitals to take primary care out of its traditional setting. “We can’t expect people to alter their lives to fit into our schedule. We need to alter our schedule to fit into their lives,” MetroHealth President and CEO Christine Alexander-Rager, MD,…

Health systems are responding to fragmented behavioral healthcare delivery in different ways: expanding telepsychiatry in rural states, building pediatric health hubs that integrate mental and physical health on one campus, launching behavioral health urgent cares, and investing in navigators and data infrastructure to keep patients connected after discharge. In West Virginia, the access challenge is…