MedPAC Calls for End of “Two-Midnight Rule”
The independent agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues has recommended that Medicare eliminate its controversial two-midnight rule. At its recent meeting in Washington, D.C., the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) also recommended that Medicare focus RAC (Recovery Audit [...]
Looking at Payment and Delivery System Reform
Last fall the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation brought together grant recipients and national experts to talk about health care payment and delivery system reform design and implementation issues. Now, the foundation has released a brief paper that addresses what the [...]
Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office Reports to Congress
The federal agency created by the Affordable Care Act to facilitate better coordination of federal benefits for those eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid has issued its annual report on its activities to Congress along with a number of recommendations [...]
MACPAC Looks at Value-Based Purchasing in Medicaid
At a recent meeting of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), the agency’s staff made a presentation on how different states are pursuing value-based purchasing in their Medicaid programs. The presentation focused on current efforts in three [...]
MACPAC Looks at DSRIP
The legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and state governments on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) issues recently took a look at a relatively new type of supplemental Medicaid funding. [...]
Providers Can’t Sue Over Low Medicaid Payments
Health care providers may not turn to the courts when they believe their state Medicaid program is not paying them enough for the services they deliver, the Supreme Court has decided. Instead, they must seek help from the federal government, [...]
How States View Medicaid Reform
What are states looking for from “Medicaid reform”? How do they evaluate the prospects of reform proposals – and how do they evaluate reforms that have been implemented? Across the country, states are pursuing Medicaid reform through section 1115 waivers, [...]
GAO Reports on CHIP Extension
As a House-approved bill that would extend authorization for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for two years awaits Senate consideration, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a mandated evaluation of the program. Among the GAO’s findings, it [...]
State Uses Innovation Funding to Improve Care for Urban Poor
New York's Medicaid program is taking advantage of federal innovation money to explore new approaches to serving low-income urban Medicaid patients. With the help of Delivery System Reform Incentive Payments (DSRIP), special Medicaid funding from the federal government, caregivers serving [...]
340B Program Faces Challenges, Change
A federal program that helps selected health care providers obtain discounted drugs for low-income patients they are serving on an outpatient basis may soon face major changes. The 340B prescription drug pricing program, created more than 20 years ago to [...]
