Beginning next year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will authorize Medicare Advantage plans to pay for some health-related but non-medical benefits for their members – benefits that will help address social determinants of health that affect the health status of many Medicare beneficiaries. As explained by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar […]
Maybe. At least that is what Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar hinted during a recent symposium held in Salt Lake City. During the event, Azar said that HHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation seeks …solutions for the whole person, including addressing housing, nutrition, and other social needs. Azar hinted at […]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has informed state Medicaid programs that it is giving them new opportunities to pay for hospitalization to care for recipients with behavioral health problems. For years Medicaid has greatly limited the ability of state Medicaid programs to pay for inpatient care for many behavioral health problems – […]
A federal program to improve birth outcomes among Medicaid-covered women has produced positive results: lower rates of pre-term births, fewer low birthweight babies, fewer C-sections, lower delivery costs, and lower first-year health care spending. The “Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns” program was a four-year initiative established by the Affordable Care Act and developed by […]
Just two years after a major overhaul of Medicaid managed care regulations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is again proposing changes in how the federal government regulates the delivery of managed care services to Medicaid beneficiaries. Under the newly proposed regulation, states would: be free to implement more changes in their managed care […]
Medicaid came out on top in elections throughout the country last week. With the arrival of a Democratic majority in the House, attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including its Medicaid expansion, appear to have come to an end – at least for now. Voters in three states approved ballot questions to expand their […]
Last week’s elections will bring to office in January a new majority party in the House and changes in the Senate as well. Changes in leadership are coming in all of the House committees with jurisdiction over health care matters: Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Oversight and Government Reform. New leadership may […]
The non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress and the administration on Medicaid issues will ask the administration to delay approving any more state Medicaid work requirements. That was the decision reached by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission when it met last week. MACPAC warned that the work requirement currently being implemented […]
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the sessions. The October 2018 MACPAC meeting covered a range of front-line issues in Medicaid, leading off with an analysis of disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotments on Thursday morning. Following the […]
Following up on a requirement from the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a request for information seeking feedback from providers and insurers about what they do to improve health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with social risk factors. The RFI seeks to learn […]