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What acquisitions should you make?

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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text.

It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source.

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Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don’t look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn’t anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, or non-characteristic words.

2015-07-02T16:09:59+00:00July 2nd, 2015|Financial, International, Taxes|Comments Off on What acquisitions should you make?

International tax changes

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text.

It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source.

Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit

Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don’t look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn’t anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, or non-characteristic words.

2015-07-02T16:09:29+00:00July 2nd, 2015|Acquisitions, Financial, International, Taxes|Comments Off on International tax changes

International investment advice

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text.

It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source.

Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit

Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don’t look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn’t anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, or non-characteristic words.

2015-07-02T16:09:02+00:00July 2nd, 2015|Financial, International, Taxes|Comments Off on International investment advice

State Shares Preliminary Thoughts on HealthChoices Procurement

In anticipation of releasing a request for proposals later this year seeking health insurers interested in participating in Pennsylvania’s HealthChoices program for Medicaid beneficiaries, the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) issued a request for information (RFI) in late May seeking input from stakeholders and interested parties on what the state might do through its next generation of HealthChoices contracts to improve the program and its delivery of care.
Now that the deadline for submitting comments has passed, DHS has released a new document that shares the comments offered most frequently by those who responded to the RFI along with brief descriptions of some of the changes the department is considering when it solicits bids for HealthChoices managed care plans later this year.
Find the original May RFI here, SNAP’s response to that RFI here, and the recent DHS follow-up document here.

2015-07-02T06:00:19+00:00July 2nd, 2015|HealthChoices PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off on State Shares Preliminary Thoughts on HealthChoices Procurement

Report on Public Health and Health Care

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has published a report summarizing its February workshop that explored the relationship between public health and health care.
According to the IOM, the workshop

… was designed to discuss and describe the elements of successful collaboration between health care and public health organizations and professionals; reflect on the five principles of primary care–public health integration (which can be applied more broadly to the health care–public health relationship): shared goals, community engagement, aligned leadership, sustainability, and data and analysis; and explore the “elephants in the room” when public health and health care interact: what are the key challenges and obstacles and what are some potential solutions, including strengths both sides bring to the table. The workshop presentations reflected on collaboration in four contexts: payment reform, the Million Hearts initiative, hospital – public health collaboration, and asthma control.

Because of the nature of the communities they serve and the work they do, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals are often important parts of public health efforts throughout the commonwealth.
Find the IOM report Collaboration between Health Care and Public Health: Workshop Summary here.

2015-07-01T06:00:05+00:00July 1st, 2015|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Report on Public Health and Health Care

PA Won’t Develop Exchange After All

Immediately after the Supreme Court verdict in the case of King v. Burwell was handed down, the Wolf administration announced that it will no longer seek to create a Pennsylvania health insurance exchange.
In a news release, Governor Wolf explained that

I took steps to protect Pennsylvania’s consumers by putting in place a contingency in the event the Supreme Court ruled people are not eligible for subsidies, but I am pleased to say that we will no longer need to rely on this plan.

See the news release here.

2015-06-30T06:00:14+00:00June 30th, 2015|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off on PA Won’t Develop Exchange After All

SNAP Calls for HealthChoices Improvements

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has urged Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services to pursue transformative innovation in the state’s HealthChoices Medicaid managed care program.
Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania logoIn particular, SNAP has called on DHS to create regional health collaboratives consisting of both insurers and providers to work together to deliver better, more coordinated care to Pennsylvania’s Medicaid population.
SNAP also recommended that the state finance innovation by implementing a Delivery System Reform Incentive Payments program, better known as DSRIP, to fund innovation in the state’s  Medicaid program.
SNAP’s suggestions came in response to a request for information issued by the state seeking recommendations for how to improve the HealthChoices program in anticipation of the state’s plan to rebid HealthChoices managed care contracts later this year.
See the state’s request for information here and find SNAP’s comment letter here.

2015-06-29T06:00:03+00:00June 29th, 2015|HealthChoices PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off on SNAP Calls for HealthChoices Improvements

CMS Issues Guidance on Medicaid Managed Care Rate-Setting

The federal government has provided new guidance to states concerning how to ensure that the rates they pay Medicaid managed care organizations are adequate.
While federal law has long required that such rates be “actuarially sound,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which issued the draft guidance, has released new guidance to advise states about the information it seeks to ensure that proposed rates are truly actuarially sound.
The guidance notes that CMS will follow three principles when evaluating proposed rates to be paid to Medicaid managed care organizations.

  • The capitation rates are reasonable and comply with all applicable laws (statutes and regulations) for Medicaid managed care;
  • the rate development process complies with all applicable laws (statutes and regulations) for the Medicaid program, including but not limited to eligibility, benefits, financing, any applicable waiver or demonstration requirements, and program integrity; and
  • the documentation is sufficient to demonstrate that the rate development process meets generally accepted actuarial practices and principles.

See the CMS document “Draft 2016 Medicaid Managed Care Rate Development Guide” here.  The National Association of Medicaid Directors has conveyed its concerns about some aspects of the proposed guidance to CMS; find its letter here.
 

2015-06-24T06:00:47+00:00June 24th, 2015|Uncategorized|Comments Off on CMS Issues Guidance on Medicaid Managed Care Rate-Setting

PA Health Law Project Releases Monthly Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published the June edition of Health Law News, its monthly newsletter.
Included in this edition are articles about access to drug and alcohol treatment services for Pennsylvania Medicaid beneficiaries; the lack of habilitative services made available to people with disabilities or significant health problems by health insurance plans offered by insurers serving Pennsylvanians through the federal health insurance exchange; and the state’s recent proposal for managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS).
Find the latest edition of Health Law News here.

2015-06-23T06:00:44+00:00June 23rd, 2015|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off on PA Health Law Project Releases Monthly Newsletter

MACPAC Reports to Congress

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) has released its second of two 2015 reports to Congress on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
In the report, the agency looks at the role of Medicaid in providing behavioral health services; examines Medicaid coverage of dental services for adults; contemplates the intersection between Medicaid and child welfare; and considers whether Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs are a legitimate means of fostering health care delivery reform or have become just a means of states’ supplementing the Medicaid payments they make to providers.
Find a summary of the MACPAC report and a link to the complete report here.

2015-06-19T06:00:18+00:00June 19th, 2015|Uncategorized|Comments Off on MACPAC Reports to Congress
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