Get ready for an influx of new Medicare beneficiaries as the Medicare Open Enrollment Period starts. This year, the period begins earlier on Oct. 15 and will last seven weeks, through Dec. 7. A major new wrinkle this year are CMS-published star ratings for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. “This year CMS is highlighting plans that have achieved an overall quality rating of 5 stars with a high performer or ‘gold star’ icon so people with Medicare can easily find high quality plans,” the agency said in an Oct. 12 press release.

Primary care practices would have a shot at collecting some extra cash while trying a new, more comprehensive clinical approach under a new CMS pilot program. The Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPCI) is a four-year program that pay you an extra $20 per patient, per month, on top of regular Medicare fee-for-service charges. The $20 rate, dubbed a “monthly care management fee,” is good for the first two years; then the rate falls to $15 per patient, per month. Additional cash: If after two years, the total cost incurred by participating practices is less than that of non-participating practices, a portion of the savings is shared with participants.

HHS released three proposed rules Aug. 12 on establishing Affordable Insurance Exchanges (AIEs) as part of a team effort with the U.S Treasury department to increase patient access to care, according to a CMS news release.

Remember: AIEs were created by health reform and will begin coverage in 2014. To date, HHS has granted $185 million to 13 states and Washington, D.C. to go toward constructing AIEs.

“Today we’re laying the foundation to provide tax incentives to help working families purchase health insurance,” said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.   “This new tax credit brings us a big step closer to achieving one of the signature goals of the Affordable Care Act – to provide tens of millions of Americans with access to affordable health insurance coverage.”

National spending on health care will rise faster than the country's gross domestic product (GDP) over the next 10 years, driven by key provisions in the Affordable Care Act, according to a new CMS report that projects spending statistics through 2020. The result will be "significantly" increased demand for prescription drugs and physician and clinical services, the report says. Healthcare spending is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.8% per year over the next decade, while GDP is projected to grow at just 4.7% per year. The result is that healthcare will grow from being 17.6% of GDP in 2010 to 19.8% of GDP in 2020, says Sean Keehan, an economist in the Office of the Actuary at CMS.

We're deep into the pages of the proposed 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and still haven't seen light at the end of the tunnel, but one thing is clear already: weighing in at 621 pages, this is one slim tome compared to the 2011 proposed fee schedule. The 2011 edition was 1,250 pages, which means this year's version is less than half the length, or 49.6% if you want to be precise. TIP: Read our initial fee schedule findings here, if you haven't already. The biggest reason for the big difference in size has to be the health reform law, which required CMS to start turning legislation into actual rulemaking.