CMS is preparing to send out the first-ever batch of incentive checks earned by providers who met meaningful use under the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive program. Supposedly, the first payments will go out by the end of this week, which effectively means later today or tomorrow.

CMS is launching three new initiatives relating to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that have nothing to do with the ACO proposed rule, but come instead from the agency's new Innovation Center. Remember: The Innovation Center was established by the health reform law as a testing ground for new Medicare payment models aimed at curbing the unsustainable cost of the nation's priciest entitlement program.

The latest Medicare Trustees report is out and the news isn't good: Medicare is set to go bust in 2024, five years earlier than the 2029 date projected in last year's report. The Social Security program will run out of money earlier as well, in 2036 instead of 2037. Remember: The Medicare trust fund pays for Medicare Part A, which means hospital insurance is affected. Part B payments are funded entirely by tax revenue and premiums paid by beneficiaries themselves. Nevertheless, top physician advocacy groups leapt to the fore immediately after the report was released today.

CMS has designated June 15 as National Testing Day to ensure your practice will be HIPAA 5010 compliant come January 2012.

The decision came as a response to the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA) letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from October 2010.

“Designating a national testing period in advance of the compliance date will focus the industry’s attention to prepare internal systems for the move to Version 5010 and begin testing electronic transactions with trading partners,” MGMA wrote in its letter.

Republican lawmakers are far from unified on a controversial House of Representatives bill masterminded by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would essentially replace the current Medicare program with a system of subsidies to seniors for buying private insurance in 2022. The latest sign of dissension comes in the form of a Republican budget proposal in the Senate, from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), that would leave Medicare unscathed.