Posted
on May 11, 2023
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for May 5-11. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
- DeBrunner & Associates has prepared a summary of the status of selected government health care waivers and flexibilities following expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency today. The DeBrunner summary covers telehealth, COVID-19 treatment and coverage, flexible hospital operations, long-term-care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and units, patient cost-sharing, and state Medicaid waivers. Find the summary here.
- CMS has sent a memo to state Medicaid and CHIP programs about the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency and the COVID-19 national emergency and the implications for Medicaid and CHIP. Find that memo here.
- The CDC has posted information about how its role and responsibilities will change with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Some of those changes involve the data it will collect from providers and how it will share that data. Find this new information here. Another CDC bulletin, with a greater emphasis on COVID-19 surveillance, offers a more detailed and technical explanation. Find it here.
- The White House has
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Posted
on May 4, 2023
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for April 28 – May 4. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
- DeBrunner & Associates has prepared a summary of the status of selected government health care waivers and flexibilities upon the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11. The DeBrunner summary covers telehealth, COVID-19 treatment and coverage, flexible hospital operations, long-term-care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and units, patient cost-sharing, and state Medicaid waivers. Find the summary here.
- The COVID-19 public health emergency led to the temporary creation of a number of flexibilities in the delivery of health care, including one issued by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that made possible prescribing controlled medications via telehealth. With the coming end of the public health emergency on May 11, and with it the expiration of some but not all COVID-related flexibilities, the DEA has announced that it is temporarily extending this flexibility while continuing to evaluate the situation. It has submitted a draft regulation to the Office of Management and Budget to this effect but will provide no further information about it
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Filed under:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
COVID-19,
health equity,
hospitals,
MACPAC,
Medicaid,
Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission,
Medicaid managed care,
Medicaid regulations,
Medicare,
Medicare reimbursement policy,
Telehealth
Posted
on April 20, 2023
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for April 8 – 20. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents.
The White House
The Biden administration has announced a plan to expand health coverage for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) individuals. To this end, it announced that HHS will soon propose a rule amending the definition of “lawful presence,” for purposes of Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage, to include DACA recipients. If finalized, the rule would make DACA individuals eligible for these programs for the first time. Under the proposed rule, DACA individuals would be able to apply for coverage through the health insurance marketplace, where they may qualify for financial assistance based on income, and through their state Medicaid agency. Learn more from this White House fact sheet. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has released a letter on the same subject.
Congress
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) has introduced H.R. 2665, the Supporting Safety Net Hospitals Act, bipartisan legislation that would delay pending cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (Medicaid DSH) payments. Currently, Medicaid DSH payments would be cut, beginning in 2024, by $8 billion a year through 2027. …
Filed under:
Affordable Care Act,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Congress,
COVID-19,
health equity,
hospitals,
MACPAC,
Medicaid,
Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission,
Medicaid disproportionate share,
Medicaid DSH,
Medicare,
Medicare post-acute care,
Medicare regulations,
Medicare reimbursement policy,
MedPAC,
post-acute care
Posted
on March 23, 2023
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission has issued its annual report to Congress on the state of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on a wide array of subjects, issues a report every year at this time. This year’s report focuses primarily on:
- Medicaid race and ethnicity data collection and reporting
- principles for assessing Medicaid nursing facility payment programs
- strengthening evidence under Medicaid drug coverage
- MACPAC’s statutorily required review of hospital payment policy for the nation’s safety-net hospitals – specifically, to report on Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (Medicaid DSH) allotments to states.
On the subject of Medicaid DSH, MedPAC states that
As in prior years, the Commission continues to find little meaningful relationship between state DSH allotments and the number of uninsured individuals; the amounts and sources of hospitals’ uncompensated care costs; and the number of hospitals with high levels of uncompensated care that also provide essential community services for low-income and uninsured populations.
Learn more about MACPAC’s perspective on Medicaid and CHIP in its …
Posted
on March 22, 2023
Medicare rates would rise for some providers and fall for others based on recommendations made to Congress last week by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the independent congressional agency that advises Congress on Medicare reimbursement matters.
MedPAC’s rate recommendations to Congress and the administration, which it approved at its January 2023 meeting, are:
- Outpatient and inpatient prospective payment systems – under current law, the estimated increase would be about 2.9 percent; MedPAC proposes 2.9 percent plus one percent.
- Physician services – increase fees 50 percent of the projected increase in the medical economic index (MEI).
- Skilled nursing facilities – reduce the current base rate three percent.
- Home health services – reduce the current base rate seven percent.
- Hospice services – a complex proposal to increase some payments 2.9 percent but to reduce payments “for providers with very long lengths of stay and lost costs relative to payments.”
- Outpatient dialysis – MedPAC endorses the current law’s call for a 1.8 percent increase.
Breaking with recent years, MedPAC has discontinued its practice of offering rate recommendations for long-term-care hospitals (LTCHs) and ambulatory surgical centers, citing inadequate data on which to base recommendations.
In addition, MedPAC offers recommendations for redistributing current Medicare disproportionate …
