Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Loss of Insurance Options Hitting Hospital Bottom Lines
Hospitals are starting to feel the impact of the loss of enhanced subsidies for the purchase of Affordable Care Act health insurance plans. According to officials from a number of for-profit hospital companies, they have been surprised at how few patients who lost their Affordable Care Act enhanced premium subsidies have purchased alternative coverage, leaving them uninsured instead. Nearly three million fewer people purchased insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges this year than last year. Such individuals continue to turn to hospitals for care – increasingly, for care they put [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for August 6
Don’t Miss: CMS issues final FY 2027 Medicare inpatient payment regulation HRSA introduces revised 340B rebate model CMS gives states new tool to help identify non-citizen Medicaid applicants The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for July 31 to August 6. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress The Senate is expected to vote on its version of a continuing resolution (CR) before leaving for recess; it would extend federal government funding through December 11. Notably, the legislation includes [...]
More Medicaid DSH Money Coming for Some Hospitals?
Some hospitals may be in line for larger Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments as a result of a federal court decision that calls for changes in how those Medicaid DSH payments are calculated. Last week, a U.S. District court in Texas again vacated a 2023 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regulation that excludes inpatient days covered by uncompensated care pools, such as through section 1115 waivers, when quantifying Medicaid days for the purpose of calculating hospitals’ Medicaid DSH payments. This decision applies nationwide and has implications for the computation [...]
Rural Areas Account for Net Loss of U.S. Hospitals
Rural hospitals are closing at a significant rate while the number of urban hospitals in the U.S. is mostly holding steady, according to a new analysis. The Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale found that between 2001 and 2023, 114 new rural hospitals opened – but 348 closed, a net loss of 234 hospitals in rural areas. Thirty-one of the 50 states experienced a net loss of rural hospitals, led by Texas, (24), Tennessee (14), California and Georgia (12), and Kansas (10). States with the biggest net increases in rural [...]
AHRQ Pulls Back Research Funding
Many groups that were awarded multi-year grants by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality are now being informed that they will not be receiving the additional funding they were told they could expect. In letters it is sending to such organizations, AHRQ is informing them it is not providing additional funding because its priorities have changed. Specifically, the letters explain that AHRQ's current priorities include focusing agency resources on patient safety, preventing antibiotic resistance, telehealth, overmedication of children, use of digital health tools to improve health, long COVID, artificial [...]