Bulletin Board

Federal Health Policy Update for January 29

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for January 23-29. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress The Senate today failed to advance a package of the remaining six FY 2026 appropriations bills, including funding for the Department of Health and Human Services. Democratic senators continue negotiating with the White House on how to proceed with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding, including the possibility of separating the DHS bill from the broader appropriations package and making targeted amendments to that [...]

Providers Continue to Dominate Fee Dispute Resolution

Health care providers won the vast majority of the fee disputes adjudicated through the No Surprises Act’s Independent Dispute Resolution process during the first half of 2025. The volume of those disputes submitted to arbitration rose nearly 40 percent over the first half of 2024, to 1.2 million cases, and the victory rate of providers also rose, from 85 percent to 88 percent.Leading the way for providers were private equity-backed parties, with three such companies accounting for 44 percent of the disputes submitted during the first half of 2025 and [...]

January 29, 2026|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: Independent Dispute Resolution process, No Surprises Act|

Erosion of Rural Maternity Care Continues

At a rate of more than two a month since the end of 2020, rural hospitals have closed or announced that they will be closing their maternity units – 124 in all by the end of 2026. As a result, today only a little more than 40 percent of rural hospitals – most of them safety-net hospitals – continue to provide maternity services, with fewer than a third of such rural hospitals doing so in 12 states. The hospitals blame a number of factors for this continued erosion, including inadequate [...]

January 28, 2026|Categories: hospitals, Medicaid|Tags: Rural hospitals, rural hospitals and labor and delivery services, rural hospitals and maternity care, safety-net hospitals|

Federal Health Policy Update for January 22

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for January 16-22. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress The House today passed an Appropriations Committee FY 2026 partial spending proposal that includes a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill. Policy highlights include: Telehealth. The bill would extend the major Medicare telehealth flexibilities and the waiver of periodic in-person visits for mental health telehealth services through the end of 2027. Medicaid DSH. The bill would cancel the FY 2026 and FY 2027 cuts [...]

January 22, 2026|Categories: Affordable Care Act, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, post-acute care, Telehealth|Tags: Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, ARPA-H, Geographic Practice Cost Index, GME payments, GPCI, Graduate Medical Education payments, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid state plan amendments, Medicare Acute Hospital Care at Home program, Medicare Advantage, Medicare dependent hospital program, Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program, Medicare home health payments, Medicare Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model, Medicare hospice payments, medicare improper payments, Medicare inpatient payments, Medicare inpatient rehabilitation facility payments, Medicare low-volume hospital program, Medicare outpatient payments, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Medicare physician payments, Medicare safety-net index, Medicare skilled nursing facility payments, Medicare telehealth flexibilities, MedPAC, outpatient cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services|

MedPAC Meets

MedPAC’s commissioners held their latest public meeting on Thursday, January 15 and Friday, January 16. The primary subject of the meeting was discussion of MedPAC’s preliminary recommendations for Medicare rates for 2027. The topics on the meeting’s agenda were: Medicare payments for hospital inpatient and outpatient services Medicare payments for physicians and other health professional services Medicare payments for skilled nursing facility services, home health agency services, inpatient rehabilitation facility services, outpatient dialysis, and hospice services mandated reports on dual-eligible special-needs plans and the impact of recent changes in the [...]

January 21, 2026|Categories: Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|Tags: Medicare Advantage, Medicare and ambulatory surgical centers, Medicare and dual-eligible special needs plans, Medicare home health rates, Medicare hospice rates, Medicare hospital inpatient rates, Medicare hospital outpatient rates, Medicare inpatient rehabilitation facility rates, Medicare Part D, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, medicare physician rates, Medicare skilled nursing facility rates, MedPAC|

12 Next

Bulletin Board

Bulletin Board

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives