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 [...]
House Members Seek Delay of DSH Cuts
221 members of the House of Representatives have written to House leaders asking them to delay cuts in Medicaid disproportionate share payments (Medicaid DSH) that are scheduled to begin on October 1. The cuts, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, [...]
House Committee Looks at 340B
Are hospitals using the savings generated by their participation in the section 340B prescription drug discount program to help their low-income and uninsured patients? That’s what the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee is asking. Earlier this year the [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met recently in Washington, D.C. Among the issues MACPAC commissioners discussed during their two-day meeting were: delivery system reform incentive payment programs Medicaid enrollment and renewal processes managed care oversight monitoring and [...]
NAUH Urges House to Delay Medicaid DSH Cuts
The House of Representatives should delay the proposed implementation of major cuts in Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) allotments to the states. The reduction of Medicaid DSH allotments, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, has already been delayed twice by [...]
