NASH Asks Feds for Resources for Hospitals
Private safety-net hospitals will need federal financial support to help in the fight against COVID-19. That was the message the National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals sent in a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma. The [...]
The Latest CMS and CDC Info on COVID-19 Measures
CMS updates COVID-19 guidelines, regulations, the waiving of regulations, and more daily on the “Current Emergencies” page of the CMS website. Find it here. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regularly posts COVIS-19 updates of its [...]
NASH Seeks Assistance With COVID-19 Needs
Provide special assistance to private safety-net hospitals to help them serve their communities during the COVID-19 national health emergency, NASH has asked in a letter to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and minority leader Charles Schumer. In particular, NASH asked [...]
CMS Posts COVID-19 FAQ for State Medicaid and CHIP Agencies
State Medicaid agencies and CHIP programs have received new guidance on the federal resources available to them to fight the COVID-19 national health emergency through a new FAQ published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week. Among [...]
Block Grants Could Hurt Medicaid, Study Finds
A switch to block grants to fund state Medicaid programs “…would require states to cut coverage, reduce benefits, increase cost-sharing, lower provider payment rates, or otherwise reduce Medicaid expenditures as compared to current law spending levels” according to a new [...]
MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s March agenda were: Addressing Medicare Shared Savings Program vulnerabilities The role of specialists in alternative payment models and [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the sessions. The February 2020 MACPAC meeting opened with a continuation of MACPAC’s examination of Medicaid’s [...]
Comfort, Not Quality, Woos Patients
People are more likely to recommend a hospital based on the comfort they felt when hospitalized rather than the quality of the care they received, a new study has found. Good food, rooms with a view, friendly nurses, peace and [...]
NASH Opposes Proposed 340B Data Collection
The federal government should not require hospitals to submit new data on their acquisition costs for prescription drugs they dispense to low-income patients through the section 340B prescription drug discount program, NASH has told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid [...]
MFAR Backlash Continues
Diverse health care and government interests are rallying around their opposition to the proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability rule. The regulation, proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in November would impose new limits on the ability of states [...]
