The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will cut $100 million in Medicare payment to the nation’s sickest enrollees to offset the effect of a new rule that requires beneficiaries to be monitored for new coronavirus infections.
The move to slash the Medicare payment comes in the wake of a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Wednesday that revealed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had failed to adequately monitor beneficiaries for new infections after a recent coronaviruses coronaviral coronavaccine study in Pennsylvania.
Under the rule, the U.K.-based health insurer Centrica announced last week it would stop paying the sickest beneficiaries in its network.
Medicare payments would be reduced by about $100 a month, or roughly $50 a day.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week the Medicare payments will be cut from $1.16 billion in 2016 to $849 million in 2020.
The cuts to Medicare payments were not announced in a separate news release issued by HHS on Wednesday.
It’s not yet known how the cuts will affect the healthcare provider’s operations, but Centrica, the health insurer for the nation, said it will close more than 1,000 Centrica-affiliated hospitals and medical facilities in the United States.
The CMS rule requires healthcare providers to monitor and report to the federal government any new coronovirus infections, but it has not been fully implemented.
Centrica said it plans to close 2,000 of its 11,000 health care facilities by the end of 2021.
Centrica’s move follows a study conducted by the Centers For Disease Control (CDC), which found in a study of a group of U.A.E. residents who had been vaccinated in the past two years, the majority of them had not yet developed symptoms of the new coronavia coronavarin.
The study also found that only 2 percent of those vaccinated were diagnosed with any new infections.
“Centrica is committed to ensuring all of our employees have the highest level of infection prevention and management, and we are proud to have an HIV and influenza outbreak in the U, one of the most dangerous areas of the U., where our hospitals have the lowest levels of infection,” Centrica said in a statement.
“As we continue to educate our workforce, we will continue to work with our healthcare providers and their hospitals to further develop our strategy to protect the health of our healthcare facilities.”
Centrisa said it has already started reducing staff numbers and will not lay off anyone who has been affected by the new rule.
“We are confident in our ability to respond to this crisis and the impact it will have on our patients, our employees and our community,” the company said.
“We will continue working with the U-S.
Department of Justice, which has been coordinating this new rule, to fully implement the changes as quickly as possible.”
The Centers For Medicare and Health Care Services said in its news release that the rule will also help reduce the burden on the healthcare industry and improve care delivery.
In the meantime, the rule affects more than 2.3 million Americans.
For more information on the new rules and to get the latest information on coronavillosis, visit the Centers of Disease Control website: http://www.cdc.gov/cohc/cohsafety/cocivirus/coisafety.html#COVID-19.
