CMS Will Continue Rolling Out Mandatory Models
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation intend to continue developing and introducing mandatory Medicare models with an emphasis on driving more value-based care. That is the message delivered by CMS administrator [...]
New Group Targets Hospitals
Insurance interests have joined forces to create a new group that is targeting hospitals and blaming them for rising health care costs. The group, called “Hospital Watch,” was formed last month and describes itself as … a watchdog group dedicated [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for March 5
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government February 27 - March 6. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a [...]
Rural Health Transformation Plans Face Pushback
In states across the country, legislators, hospital and health care groups, and others are objecting to the plans their state governments submitted to the federal government for how they would like to spend Rural Health Transformation funds – plans that [...]
States, Hospitals, Patients Brace for Big Beautiful Bill Effects
The effects of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will soon be felt by states, providers, and consumers and some of them are already preparing for the impact. States face an expected loss of $664 billion in Medicaid money [...]
MedPAC Posts Agenda for March 2-3 Meeting
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has posted the agenda for its next public meeting, which will be held on Monday, March 2 and Tuesday, March 3. The subjects scheduled for consideration during MedPAC’s next two-day session are: mandated report: Assessment [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for February 26
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for February 20-26. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress Both chambers of Congress are in session this week and next. The partial [...]
Groups Protest No Surprises Act Implementation
A group of more than 60 health care payers, employer groups, and others have written to the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury to protest how the Independent Dispute Resolution process created under the No Surprises [...]
Price Transparency Not Living Up to Objective – Yet
The requirement that hospitals post transparent information about their prices is not yet leading consumers to do more price shopping before obtaining care. Instead, to the degree that hospitals are fulfilling the requirement at all, the data they share is [...]
Medicare Advantage Musical Chairs Continues
Even as the number of seniors enrolling in Medicare Advantage plans rises every year, the program’s stability is threatened by the withdrawal of those plans from the program. According to a new JAMA Network analysis, after years of just one [...]
