Posted
on July 29, 2022
More than 140 members of Congress have written to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure asking her to implement a bigger increase in Medicare payments for hospital inpatient services than the agency has proposed for FY 2023.
According to separate bipartisan letters from House and Senate members, the proposed FY 2023 increase – 2.8 percent – fails to reflect inflation and rising health care staffing costs. The letter signed by 112 House members states that
We worry the proposed payment updates do not accurately reflect today’s cost of patient care and, when tethered with other policy changes included in the proposed rule, would result in a payment decrease for IPPS [Medicare inpatient prospective payment system] hospitals in FY 2023. We respectfully urge CMS to further evaluate this proposal and consider using its special exceptions and adjustments authority to revise the final IPPS rule to ensure hospitals have the resources they need to provide optimal care.
Learn more from the Fierce Healthcare article “142 bipartisan lawmakers push CMS to reconsider inpatient payment rule updates” and from the House letter.
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Posted
on July 27, 2022
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
Final Medicare Payment Regulations for FY 2023
- CMS has issued its final FY 2023 Medicare inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) payment system regulation, finalizing a rate increase of 3.9 percent, which is greater than the 2.8 percent the agency proposed in April. To learn more about CMS’s final IRF payment rule for FY 2023, see this CMS fact sheet and the final rule itself.
- CMS also has finalized its Medicare inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment system final rule for FY 2023, including a 2.5 percent rate increase. Learn more from this CMS fact sheet and the final rule itself.
- In addition, CMS has published its FY 2023 hospice payment rate update final rule, finalizing a 3.8 percent rate increase. Learn more from this CMS fact sheet and from the final rule itself.
White House
The White House COVID-19 response team has briefed the press about the administration’s latest efforts in the response to COVID-19. Find a transcript of its latest briefing here.
The White House …
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Medicare reimbursement policy,
MedPAC,
post-acute care,
Telehealth
Posted
on July 20, 2022
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
White House
The White House COVID-19 response team has briefed the press about the administration’s latest efforts in the response to COVID-19. Find a transcript of that teleconference briefing here.
COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency effective July 15.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- CMS has released its proposed Medicare outpatient prospective payment system regulation for calendar year 2023. Highlights include:
- A proposed rate increase of 2.7 percent for Medicare-covered outpatient services.
- A proposed rate increase of 2.7 percent for ambulatory surgical center services.
- A proposal to pay rural sole-community hospitals the full outpatient prospective payment system rate, rather than the site-neutral, physician fee schedule equivalent rate, for clinic visits in excepted off-campus provider-based departments.
- An incomplete proposal for 340B payments in which CMS is formally proposing a payment rate of average sale price minus 22.5 percent for drugs and biologicals acquired through the 340B program, as it has been in recent years, but the proposed
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Medicare reimbursement policy,
MedPAC,
Telehealth
Posted
on July 12, 2022
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
White House
- The White House has issued an executive order on protecting access to reproductive health care services. Find that executive order here.
- In support of that executive order, CMS has published guidance titled “Reinforcement of EMTALA Obligations specific to Patients who are Pregnant or are Experiencing Pregnancy Loss.” Find that guidance here and the agency’s expanded explanation of that guidance in this memo to state survey agencies. The guidance does not establish new policies.
- In addition, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has written to hospital and health care leaders reinforcing their obligations under EMTALA for addressing the emergency needs of patients who are pregnant or experiencing pregnancy loss. The letter explains that providers’ “…legal duty to provide stabilizing medical treatment to a patient who presents to the emergency department and is found to have an emergency medical condition preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandate that might otherwise prohibit such treatment.” Find the complete HHS letter here.
- Secretary Becerra also has outlined HHS’s current
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Posted
on July 7, 2022
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 7. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
The Courts
Hospitals may sue state Medicaid programs for failing to ensure that private insurers – such as Medicaid managed care plans – pay hospitals in a timely manner for the care they provide to their Medicaid patients, a federal appeals court has ruled. See the court’s decision in this case.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- CMS has proposed a series of changes in the Medicare cost report, including but not limited to changes in the S-10 form. Go here for a link to a zip file of seven documents explaining what CMS proposes. Stakeholder comments are due July 22.
- CMS has unveiled a suite of new resources to improve CMS and state oversight of Medicaid and CHIP managed care programs. Released in a Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services Informational Bulletin, this new information includes tools, templates, and updates on tactics to improve states’ reporting on their Medicaid and CHIP managed care programs. The bulletin outlines the latest updates of a new web-based portal for state reporting on
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