Latest news with #IPPS
Toronto Star
3 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Star
Lungpacer Announces CMS NTAP Approval for AeroPace® System in FY2026 IPPS Final Rule
Exton, Pa., Aug. 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Lungpacer Medical Inc., a medical technology company focused on neurostimulation therapies for critically ill patients, today announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has granted New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) status for the AeroPace® System under the Fiscal Year 2026 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule, effective October 1, 2025. The AeroPace® System is an FDA-designated breakthrough device that uses periodic neurostimulation to exercise the diaphragm, helping mechanically ventilated patients to breathe independently faster. Clinical evidence shows that patients treated with the AeroPace System strengthened their diaphragm by 50%, reduced their risk of being on the ventilator for 30 days by 35%, and reduced ventilator time by 3 days when compared to standard of care.
The Hindu
07-08-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
CIL tweaks norms to allow sale of excess power by plants at exchanges
Beginning August 1, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) said it is allowing thermal power plants (TPP) that use its linkage coal under long and medium term fuel supply agreements (FSAs), to sell un-requisitioned surplus (URS) power generated by them, in the power market and exchanges, a move that could benefit end-consumers. Earlier, TPPs serving power purchase agreements (PPAs) using CIL's linkage coal could sell the electricity generated only within the confines of the PPAs as the provisions disallowed the sale of power generated from long and medium term FSAs in the power market and exchanges. As per the revised SHAKTI policy, CIL said it has done away with the earlier provision of restricting the sale of power in the open market. This applies evenly to all existing as well as future long and medium term power FSAs and extends to all the power generators – Central and State gencos, and independent power plants, a senior company official said. 'We have been cementing our relations with consumers consistently and the policy facilitates the power sector to meet consistent demand of affordable power,' the official said. With the surplus power availability in the exchanges the spot prices are expected to come under check, leading to affordable power supply to end consumers. In August last year, CIL allowed supplies beyond Annual Contracted Quantity (ACQ) to TPPs of the country including IPPS, doing away a provision which allowed coal supplies up to a maximum of 120% of ACQ. For the current fiscal year, CIL has about 650 million tonnes of FSAs in place for the power sector.
Business Wire
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Blue Yonder, Through Its Subsidiary Doddle, Acquires 100% Ownership of Inmar Post-Purchase Solutions
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Blue Yonder, the world leader in digital supply chain transformation, announced today that – through its subsidiary Doddle Inc. – it has acquired Inmar Post-Purchase Solutions (IPPS), a joint venture between Doddle, a part of Blue Yonder, and Inmar, Inc. Blue Yonder, through its subsidiary Doddle, has now purchased the remaining 51% of IPPS, adding to the 49% that Doddle previously owned as of March 2022. Renamed Blue Yonder Reverse Retail Operations LLC, the entity will continue to support FedEx Easy Returns, which offers FedEx customers access to a low-cost, package- and label-free returns solution. FedEx Easy Returns is currently available at approximately 3,000 drop-off locations in the trusted returns network of FedEx Office and Kohl's stores across the U.S., with plans for swift growth. The service offered by Blue Yonder Reverse Retail Operations LLC is powered by the Blue Yonder Returns Management solution, which allows consumers to return their items without needing to print labels or have packaging, enhancing the overall convenience of the returns experience. The solution also helps streamline the returns process for retailers. Returns will be routed through a reverse logistics facility for optimal recovery, helping retailers ensure the accuracy and speed of the return, as well as potentially reducing waste. 'According to our Consumer Retail Returns Survey, consumers are more likely to use third-party returns services if they have convenient drop-off locations (60%) and offer faster refund processing (47%), so efficient returns are absolutely critical for improving consumer experiences while optimizing costs for retailers,' said Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder. 'The volume of consumer returns is growing exponentially, but the disparate elements of the reverse logistics process make it hard to keep up. Through the acquisition, we will continue making returns convenient and hassle-free for retailers and consumers.' The Blue Yonder Returns Management solution provides retailers, consumers and logistics service providers with the following benefits: Superior visibility: Retailers can track their returns across the end-to-end reverse supply chain, enabling them to make smarter inventory decisions. Reduced costs: Rather than shipping individually returned items from each consumer, returns are merged together and returned in bulk, minimizing logistics costs. Improved consumer experience: Thanks to a returns network with thousands of drop-off locations, consumers have more convenience, and with a more connected returns process, they also gain visibility into the return and speed for their refund. Enhanced sustainability: Since returned items are consolidated and shipped together, this minimizes packaging and reduces empty truck miles, helping to improve waste and carbon emissions, respectively. Improved cycle time: By improving the speed at which a return moves from drop-off, through sorting, back to sellable stock, retailers improve item availability and speed up inventory turns. 'The physical movement of returned items is a major supply chain challenge, yet drop-off locations, transport services, downstream processing tasks, and SKU ownership remain siloed,' said Tim Robinson, corporate vice president, Returns, Blue Yonder. 'With Blue Yonder Returns Management, retailers can optimize their returns process, enhancing speed, sustainability and cost effectiveness while simplifying the returns process for consumers.' About Blue Yonder Blue Yonder is the world leader in end-to-end digital supply chain transformation. With a unified, AI-driven platform and multi-tier network, Blue Yonder empowers businesses to operate sustainably, scale profitably, and delight their customers — all at machine speed. A pioneer in applying AI solutions to the most complicated supply chain challenges, Blue Yonder's modern innovations and unmatched industry expertise help more than 3,000 retailers, manufacturers, and logistics service providers confidently navigate supply chain complexity and disruption. 'Blue Yonder' is a trademark or registered trademark of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name 'Blue Yonder' is a trademark and/or property of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are associated.
The Star
10-06-2025
- Health
- The Star
‘DRG grouper that can be used by all hospitals needed'
PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry should develop a national grouper on diagnosis-related groups (DRG) that will work for all hospitals. DRG groupers are used to categorise patients into DRGs, which are groups of cases with similar diagnoses, procedures and other characteristics. Prof Dr Maznah Dahlui, a health economist at Universiti Malaya and chairperson of the technical advisory committee for the DRG under the Health Ministry, said currently, there are different groupers based on hospital type. 'The ministry needs to come up with a DRG grouper that can be used by all types of hospitals. Currently, public hospitals use the grouper that they developed and teaching hospitals use the grouper developed by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, while some private hospitals adopt (the model) from Australia,' she said when contacted. The main purpose of the DRG grouper is to assign DRGs, which are then used to determine payment for the hospital stay under the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS). Prof Maznah said DRGs work as a costing model to improve hospital efficiency and as a payment model, but may not necessarily be applied for health insurance reimbursement. 'At the end of June, representatives from hospitals will have a workshop to discuss the development of the national grouper. 'Most likely, we will adopt the available grouper in public hospitals but modify it to consider patient characteristics (diagnosis and procedure) in private hospitals. So it's still under discussion,' she said. 'There is another group under the Health Ministry that looks at developing the health benefits package and the healthcare payment model for Malaysia, in preparation towards National Health Insurance (NHI). So, DRG is only part of and not necessarily only for NHI,' she said. The DRG, she added, is the bundling of treatment costs, which is equivalent to treating a certain DRG. 'We want to standardise how we group the patients for diagnosis plus procedure. It gives transparency of treatment cost,' she said. Dr Khor Swee Kheng, health systems specialist and CEO of Angsana Health, said implementation of DRG could take up to a decade if done in phases. 'Any DRG implementation should take five to 10 years, and it happens in phases. This has been the experience in other countries that have launched their DRGs, which started in 1983 in the United States,' he said. Dr Ginsky Chan, co-founder and access director at Angsana Health, said the phased introduction of DRGs, starting with minor illnesses, is a positive move towards value-based healthcare. 'Implementing it by the end of 2025 is ambitious but feasible with strong coordination. 'While it does not require a national insurance system immediately, it does highlight the need for integrated financing across the public and private sectors. A phased, collaborative approach will be key to its success,' he said. The DRG-based model has been implemented in a number of countries, including Indonesia and South Korea. However, there appears to be some resistance in the private sector towards its implementation. IHH Healthcare Bhd said last month that the payment model is not suitable to be implemented in local private hospitals, and feels that further studies are needed before considering its adoption. Its group chief executive officer, Dr Prem Kumar Nair, said DRGs are very difficult to implement in private hospitals, adding that it was originally designed to fund public healthcare through a single-payer model. Under the framework, inpatient cases are grouped into categories based on clinical similarity and expected resource use, allowing payers to reimburse hospitals with a fixed rate per case rather than through itemised billing.
Zawya
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Uganda: Clean up payroll of police officers, Members of Parliament (MPs) tell minister
Lawmakers have tasked the Ministry of Public Service to clean up the payroll of police officers in a bid to put an end to complaints of unpaid salaries of officers. The Members of Parliament made the demands while responding to a statement of the Minister of Defence and Internal Affairs, Gen. Kahinda Otafiire that was presented by Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Industry), Hon. David Bahati during plenary sitting on Thursday, 17 April 2025. The minister said that some officers have not been paid due to a mismatch in names and dates of birth. 'In 2023, the Auditor General conducted a validation exercise for all government employees. Some officers failed to meet validation requirements due to missing national identification cards, discrepancies in names and dates of birth. These officers were categorised as partially validated,' Bahati said. He added that data migration from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) to Human Capital Management System (HCM) has also played a role in delaying salary payment of some officers. 'Salaries on HCM are paid first then the process of payment on IPPS starts; this is to avoid double payments. The two systems however, do not cause missing salaries but delays for those still on IPPS. The process is underway to ensure all are migrated to the HCM system,' he said. The matter had been earlier raised by the Tororo District Woman MP, Hon. Sarah Opendi who tasked the minister to provide a list of the affected officers and timeline of completion of migration of the systems. 'If you look at the audit report, we shall find un-utilised salaries of police officers. The police officers cannot come for fear of victimisation. Let the Minister of Public Service explain why the integration of this system is taking long,' she said. The Minister of State for Public Service, Hon. Grace Mugasa said that the migration is ongoing adding that it is aimed at ridding the system of ghost workers. 'We noticed many ghost workers were on the payroll and government is losing an estimated Shs5 billion per annum,' she said. The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi however, said that the matter should be resolved within a week, given its gravity. 'Police officers are brutalising people because they are angry. These people earn very meagre salaries that they can barely get through with their lives. We task government to deal with this matter,' Ssenyonyi said. Hon. Godfrey Onzima (NRM, Aringa North County) wondered why government keeps changing payment systems saying that such changes are to blame for missing salaries. 'You [Public Service Ministry] introduce a system that works for only three years and change. Why don't they use systems that work for at least 10 years,' Onzima asked. Hon. Rosemary Nyakikongoro (NRM, Sheema District) said that it is unfair for officers to miss their salaries as a result of government's inadequacies. 'It is mandatory for one to have a national identification card before they are recruited. How is it then possible that when it is time to pay, you say they don't have identification cards?' she asked. Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa directed the Minister of Public Service to provide a comprehensive statement within two. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
