Survey Says: More Than One in Four Underinsured
28 percent of insured adults under the age of 64 were uninsured in 2016, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. The survey also found that: More than half of the uninsured are insured through their employer. Nearly one in four [...]
Despite Uncertainty, States Plan to Raise Medicaid Rates
Even though events in Washington leave the future of Medicaid unclear, 44 states still intend to raise at least some of their Medicaid rates in 2018. Inpatient payments to hospitals are not among the major targets of the planned rate [...]
Braving the Unknown, States Increase Medicaid Benefits
Despite the prospect of Congress and the administration enacting major reductions of federal Medicaid spending as part of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, more than half the states expanded their Medicaid programs in 2017 and many plan to [...]
Helping With Homelessness Reduces ER Costs
Hospitals are finding that helping homeless, frequent emergency room visitors find housing can reduce their unreimbursed ER costs. Throughout the country, hospitals are investing money – in some cases, millions of dollars – in housing programs for the homeless. What [...]
A Different Perspective on Telehealth
Residents of urban areas often have the same access-to-care problems as rural residents, although the latter receive far more attention. So concludes a new report published on the Health Affairs Blog. According to the analysis, urban and rural residents have [...]
MedPAC Meets
The independent agency that advises Congress and the administration on Medicare payment policies met last week in Washington, D.C. Among the issues discussed at the meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission were: the merit-based incentive payment system telehealth a [...]
340B Changes Would Hurt Hospital Margins
Proposed changes in the federal section 340B prescription drug discount program would hurt hospital margins. So says Moody’s Investors Service, the credit rating agency. According to Moody’s, the margins of non-profit hospitals are already under pressure because revenue increases are [...]
House Committee to Hold 340B Hearing
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee will hold a hearing on Wednesday about the 340B Drug Pricing Program. At the hearing, titled “Examining How Covered Entities Utilize the 340B Drug Pricing Program,” the subcommittee hopes …to hear directly [...]
House Members to CMS: Don’t Cut 340B Payments
More than half of the members of the House of Representatives have written to CMS administrator Seema Verma asking her to withdraw a controversial proposal that would greatly reduce Medicare reimbursement for prescription drugs for urban safety-net hospitals and other [...]
Suit Claims Low Medicaid Rates are Discriminatory
A lawsuit filed in state courts in California argues that the state’s low Medicaid payments amount to discrimination against the state’s large Hispanic Medicaid population. California pays among the lowest rates in the country to physicians, making health care inaccessible [...]
