Laura Skopec

Why the Medicare physician fee schedule misvalues fee levels and how to fix it Abstract. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) relies on the American Medical Association's Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) to

Health policy people, Bob Berenson and I have a new paper in Health Affairs Scholar that explores the problems with the Medicare physician fee schedule and proposes some solutions: academic.oup.com/healthaffair...

Challenges of Choice in Medicare To explore how agents and brokers may influence Medicare enrollment and identify any gaps in oversight of agents, brokers, and marketers, we conducted a lite…

New today: The Medicare Advantage sales industry has become a major source of Medicare spending. Reform is needed to make better use of taxpayer funds and ensure agents, brokers, and marketers meet beneficiaries’ needs.
www.urban.org/research/pub...

Rural Hospital Revenue Could Drop by $87 Billion over 10 Years Because of the Reconciliation Bill and Expiring Enhanced Tax Credits The proposed reconciliation bill and expiring enhanced tax credits would cause significant revenue losses for rural hospitals and increase the demand for uncompensated care.

New analysis from the Urban Institute: Rural hospital revenue could drop by $87 billion over ten years because of the reconciliation bill and expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, not including a $23 billion increase in uncompensated care costs.
www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...

Tonight!!

This Thursday, June 5, I'm performing at the Laugh Riot Grrrl Comedy Festival at Tao Comedy Studio! 7PM on the patio.

Tickets are $15, or just $10 per zoom household. Get your ticket here! www.eventbrite.com/e/lrgf25pati...

LA comedians! Wherever you're at as a stand-up, you should take a workshop with @thebobbieoliver.bsky.social! Get great feedback on your jokes/set, find just the right delivery, and go to tons of free, supportive open mics at Tao Comedy Studio. Bobbie is the best!

Tomorrow, May 18 in Ktown and on Zoom!

Tao Comedy Studio Presents: Tao of Comedy Showcase on Sunday, May 18th at 7:30pm Pacific. Live-streamed to Zoom! $15 per person or $10 per Zoom household!

Tickets: Eventbrite.com/e/tao-of-comedy-showcase-518-tickets-1352846423069
@thebobbieoliver.bsky.social

LRGF25Patio6/5 7pm Live comedy show with in-person seating, live streamed to Zoom. Part of the 11th annual Laugh Riot Grrrl Comedy Festival

June 5 tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/lrgf25pati...

May 18 Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/tao-of-com...

Hello LA people! I have 2 stand-up shows coming up in the next few weeks.
Sunday, May 18 at 7:30pm at Tao Comedy Studio
Thursday, June 5 at 7pm at Tao Comedy Studio
Zoom tickets are available too! Links in thread
#comedy #womenincomedy #standup #TaoComedyStudio

Come out and see this very funny show!

Tao of Comedy Showcase:
Sunday, May 18th at 7:30pm Pacific, in-person and livestreamed to Zoom.
Just $15 per person or $10 per Zoom household!
Tickets: Eventbrite.com/e/tao-of-comedy-showcase-518-tickets-1352846423069
@thebobbieoliver.bsky.social

Updated Medicaid-To-Medicare Fee Index: Medicaid Physician Fees Still Lag Behind Medicare Physician Fees | Health Affairs Journal Medicaid plays a critical role in the US health insurance system, but a history of low physician fees has limited physicians’ participation in the program. Recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rules have sought to encourage states to increase their Medicaid physician fees to at least 80 percent of Medicare fees, based on the methods used in the Urban Institute’s periodic surveys of Medicaid physician fees. In this article, we show that between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid fees increased slightly, from 72 percent of Medicare fees to 75 percent of Medicare fees for a basket of twenty-seven common physician services. In addition, because the current Medicaid population includes far more nonelderly, nondisabled adults than when the original basket of services was chosen, we present an updated index that better reflects current patterns of spending and service use. We found that, based on this updated index, Medicaid physician fees were approximately 71 percent of Medicare physician fees in 2024, including 69 percent for office visits, 68 percent for hospital and emergency department visits, 87 percent for obstetric care, and 79 percent for other services under our updated approach.

New today in Health Affairs: "Updated Medicaid-To-Medicare Fee Index: Medicaid Physician Fees Still Lag Behind Medicare Physician Fees" doi.org/10.1377/hlth...

(Some) readers of my healthcare-related pilot: "I don't know if I buy that a doctor could be this obviously corrupt and the hospital/other docs would just kind of look the other way."

Me: www.propublica.org/article/thom...

Thank you, Stacey!

My kid was so proud to show me the stuffie he got at a pokemon tournament and, um…

UN-TITLED He's too olde for this shit.

A writing group friend has a new comedy podcast out called Un-Titled. Check it out! shows.acast.com/un-titled

They gave me a little gift bag of cutesy pink wellness-y shit that I definitely was not in the right mood to receive. I may be mammogram old but I’m not “live laugh love” old!

Got my 1st mammogram today bc apparently the stress of waiting to see if my husband loses his job in January wasn’t immediate enough.

(Btw, fellow old-ass millennials, it’s time to get your mammogram).

So I guess we’re really doing this this time? Here’s hoping this isn’t like all the times I say I’ll join someone’s Discord and then just…never check it again.

Come out and see some funny people (and me) tomorrow night! Zoom options available too.

Finally made it over here to scream into the less-toxic void.