A couple of weeks ago, the 3,500^th person to hold the CCDS certification passed the exam. We are delighted to introduce you to Jaime Brown, BSN, RN, CCDS, a CDI specialist at Ochsner Health System at Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Please join us in congratulating her on this tremendous accomplishment!

Before becoming a nurse, Brown had a career as a commercial loan underwriter for a major financial institution before obtaining her bachelor of science in nursing. She worked in oncology for seven years and has been in CDI for three years.

“CDI has been an awesome professional opportunity,” says Brown. “I have had the opportunity to increase my clinical knowledge, learn the financial side of healthcare, and be a part of the formative years of this unique profession all while having the flexibility to be there for my children when they need me.”

Brown has two children—daughter, Kaitlyn, age nine, and son Cody, age seven. She enjoys her free time trying new restaurants and catching up with family and friends.

The pay regulations for 2017 are expected to increase Medicare payments to hospitals for outpatient services by 1.7%, according to details about the 2017 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) final rule, which also finalizes changes to the Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Payment System. The final rule includes new Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) rates for items and services rendered to Medicare beneficiaries at off-campus outpatient departments owned by hospitals. Once all of the outpatient payment rule changes announced Tuesday are accounted for, CMS estimates next year's Medicare payments to hospitals for outpatient services will be slightly higher than 1.65%. That is "before taking into account changes in volume and case mix" for hospitals paid under the OPPS, the fact sheet says.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by HealthLeaders Media.

CMS recently released details of its next round of settlements for hospitals with pending inpatient appeals to help clear a massive backlog that has been the subject of a long-running lawsuit.

With appeals waiting for adjudication before Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) continuing to languish, this is CMS’ second attempt at reducing the backlog by offering providers a portion of the appealed amount in return for ending the appeal. In 2014, the agency paid approximately $1.47 billion to 2,022 hospitals to settle approximately 346,000 claims. CMS also issued a proposed rule in June attempting to deal with its inability to complete reviews by its statutorily mandated deadline.