Federal register
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This final rule specifies the Stage 2 criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet in order to qualify for Medicare and/or Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive payments. In addition, it specifies payment adjustments under Medicare for covered professional services and hospital services provided by EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs failing to demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology (CEHRT) and other program participation requirements. This final rule revises certain Stage 1 criteria, as finalized in the July 28, 2010 final rule, as well as criteria that apply regardless of Stage.
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We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems. Some of the changes implement certain statutory provisions contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively known as the Affordable Care Act) and other legislation. These changes will be applicable to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2012, unless otherwise specified in this final rule. ⋯ We are establishing new requirements or revised requirements for quality reporting by specific providers (acute care hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, LTCHs, and inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs)) that are participating in Medicare. We also are establishing new administrative, data completeness, and extraordinary circumstance waivers or extension requests requirements, as well as a reconsideration process, for quality reporting by ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) that are participating in Medicare. We are establishing requirements for the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final rule to require the filing of a premarket approval application (PMA) or a notice of completion of a product development protocol (PDP) for the cardiovascular permanent pacemaker electrode. The Agency has summarized its findings regarding the degree of risk of illness or injury designed to be eliminated or reduced by requiring the device to meet the statute's approval requirements and the benefits to the public from the use of the device. This action implements certain statutory requirements.
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The Department of Defense is publishing this final rule to revise the definition of ``unlabeled or off-label drug'' to ``off-label use of a drug or device.'' This provision codifies the coverage of those medically necessary indications for which there are demonstrations from medical literature, national organizations, or technology assessment bodies that the off-label use is safe and effective and in accordance with nationally accepted standards of practice in the medical community. Additionally, this rule removes the partial list of examples of unproven drugs, devices, and medical treatments or procedures proscribed in TRICARE regulations. We are removing the partial list from the regulation but will maintain the partial list in the TRICARE Policy Manual at www.tricare.mil.
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This document amends the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ``Payment or Reimbursement for Emergency Services for Nonservice-Connected Conditions in Non-VA Facilities'' regulations to conform with a statutory change that expanded veterans' eligibility for reimbursement. Some of the revisions in this final rule are purely technical, matching the language of our regulations to the language of the revised statute, while others set out VA's policies regarding the implementation of statutory requirements. This final rule expands the qualifications for payment or reimbursement to veterans who receive emergency services in non-VA facilities, and establishes accompanying standards for the method and amount of payment or reimbursement.