The chairman and ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee have written to CMS administrator Seema Verma to ask her to address the lack of transparency in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In the bipartisan letter, committee chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) and ranking member Kevin Brady (R-TX) note that “…Congress established […]
Officials in ten states are giving consideration, in one form or another, to permitting uninsured low-income residents to buy into their Medicaid programs. So while Washington considers the possibility of Medicare for all, the ten states – Nevada, New Mexico, California, Delaware, Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – are tackling the many issues […]
The National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals has submitted formal comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in response to CMS’s proposed changes in federal Medicaid managed care regulations. NASH’s letter addressed three aspects of the proposed regulation: payment rate ranges, directed Medicaid payments, and Medicaid pass-through payments. The overall theme underlying NASH’s […]
The Trump administration reportedly is considering introducing Medicaid block grants through regulations rather than legislation, according to published reports. Those reports explain that the administration may seek to offer states an opportunity to apply to the federal government to use Medicaid block grants by obtaining section 1115 Medicaid waivers, a commonly used tool for states […]
The National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals has unveiled its public policy advocacy agenda for 2019. That agenda explains that NASH will: Address Medicare issues such as continuing threats to private safety-net hospitals’ Medicare DSH payments, audits of the Medicare cost report’s S-10 form, graduate medical education payments, potential cuts in bad debt, 340B, the participation […]
A new study suggests that the encouraging results of Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program may not actually be as encouraging as people thought. According to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, data on reduced readmissions may be more the result of changes in hospital coding practices than improved quality performance by hospitals. […]
A federal court has ruled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overstepped its authority in reducing Medicare payments for prescription drugs covered by the section 340B prescription drug discount program. While the court conceded that CMS has the authority to address 340B payments, it found that CMS’s drastic payment cuts, introduced in FY […]
Medicaid MCOs may be skimping on care, according to a recent Kaiser Health News report. According to Kaiser, for-profit companies that sub-contract with Medicaid managed care organizations to review requests for services often deny care to Medicaid patients to save money for the MCOs that employ them and to benefit themselves financially. The Kaiser article […]
In 2019 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services intends to create a new office to address regulatory reform. CMS administrator Seema Verma recently announced her intention to create this office, but other than saying its priority would be to reduce regulatory burden, offered no details. See a brief notice about the new office here.
In a formal guidance letter to state Medicaid directors, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has outlined ten ways that states can better serve individuals who are enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. Noting that such dually eligible individuals represent 20 percent of Medicare enrollees but 34 percent of Medicare spending while also constituting […]