340B on the Move?
Consider moving the section 340B prescription drug discount program from the Health Resources and Services Administration to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That was the message in a recent letter from Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch to [...]
A New Wave of Medicaid Expansion?
Spurred by the Trump administration’s invitation to states to apply for approval to make work requirements a part of their Medicaid program, a number of states that spurned the opportunity created for expansion under the Affordable Care Act may consider [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met last week in Washington, D.C. to discuss a variety of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program issues. MACPAC, the non-partisan legislative branch agency that performs policy and data analysis and makes [...]
NAUH Asks Congressional Leaders to Delay Medicaid DSH Cut
Delay cuts in Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) allotments to states, NAUH has asked congressional leaders. Medicaid DSH payments, which help private safety-net hospitals with the cost of caring for their low-income and uninsured patients, were slated for cuts under [...]
ACA Improves Access to Surgical Services
The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion has improved access to surgical services for Medicaid patients. Or so says a new study published in JAMA Surgery, which reports that In this study of patients with 1 of 5 common surgical conditions, [...]
NQF to Medicaid: Do a Better Job of Addressing Social Determinants of Health
State Medicaid programs need to do a better job of measuring and addressing the social risks their patients face, the National Quality Forum has asserted in a new report. To do so, NQF concluded, state Medicaid programs should “…work more [...]
Docs Not Scoring Performance Bonuses
Relatively few physicians will receive Medicare pay-for-performance bonuses under Medicare’s value-based modifier program in 2018. The question now is whether this is because of uninspiring performance or indifference to the program. Of the approximately 1.1 million clinicians who participate in [...]
Medicaid in the Spotlight
State-option work requirements. A cap on federal spending. New flexibility for states to address eligibility, benefits, and provider payments. Rolling back the Affordable Care Act’s eligibility expansion. Medicaid is under the policy microscope in Washington these days in ways it [...]
Safety-Net Hospitals Under the Gun
Safety-net hospitals across the country - including private safety-net hospitals - face a new challenge: adjusting to several cuts in the supplemental payments they receive from the federal government to help them serve the low-income residents of the communities in [...]
MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission held two days of public meetings in Washington, D.C. During the sessions MedPAC, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues, addressed the following subjects: a Medicare Advantage status [...]
