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US News’ Best Hospitals 2018-19 — 4 specialties Written by Alyssa Rege | August 14, 2018 | Along with its 2018-19 Best Hospitals Honor Roll rankings, U.S. News & World Report released its rankings for the top hospitals across several specialties on Aug. 14. For the 2018-19 rankings, U.S. News analyzed data from nearly 5,000 hospitals and survey responses from more than 30,000 physicians to rank the top hospitals across 16 specialties. Among the factors considered for the rankings were survival rates, patient safety, specialized staff and hospital reputation. An estimated 158 hospitals were ranked in at least one specialty. Here are the top 10 hospitals for four specialties, as reported by U.S. News: Cancer MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston) Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York City) Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.) Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (Boston) Cleveland Clinic The Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore) Seattle Cancer Care Alliance at UW Medical Center Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Fla.) UCSF Medical Center…

Proposed physician fee changes credit negative for academic med centers, some rural hospitals, Moody’s says Written by Alia Paavola | July 31, 2018 | While the proposed changes to CMS’ physician fee schedule for 2019 would be credit positive for community hospitals, the changes would be credit negative for academic medical centers and certain rural hospitals, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service. CMS proposed simplifying the billing process by reducing the number of evaluation and management codes to two billing codes from five. Under the changes, CMS would pay one standard rate for office visits that require an evaluation by physician. The other rate would apply to services provided by non-physicians. This change increases payments for less complex patients and reduces payments for complex cases. Primary care physicians would see a higher rate of reimbursement while specialists would see a lower payment rate. Since community hospitals employ large number of physicians, including…