Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Coronavirus Update for Friday, March 12
The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 12. White House President Biden announced his administration’s objective of making every American eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine by May 1. See a fact sheet about the announcement. The White House has posted a transcript of the March 12 press briefing provided by its COVID-19 response team and public health officials. President Biden will nominate Melanie Egorin to serve as HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Legislation. Department of Health and Human Services HHS [...]
Coronavirus Update for Thursday, March 11
The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 11. White House The White House has posted a transcript of the March 10 press briefing provided by its COVID-19 response team and public health officials. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has updated its guidance on nursing home visitation, easing current restrictions. According to the updated guidance, facilities should permit responsible indoor visitation at all times and for all residents, regardless of vaccination status of the resident or visitor, except under [...]
Too Many Medicare APMs?
MedPAC thinks maybe that’s the case. At the recent meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the agency’s commissioners suggested that they may recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reduce its assortment of alternative payment model programs. As reported by MedPage Today, a draft of MedPAC’s June report to Congress states that The [Health and Human Services] Secretary should implement a more coordinated portfolio of fewer alternative payment models (APMs) that support the strategic objectives of reducing spending and improving quality. In recent years CMS’s Center for [...]
MedPAC Meets
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss various Medicare payment issues. Among the issues discussed at MedPAC’s March meeting were: Medicare beneficiary access to care in rural areas skilled nursing facility value-based purchasing program and proposed replacement streamlining CMS’s portfolio of alternative payment models balancing efficiency with equity in Medicare Advantage benchmark policy relationship between clinician services and other Medicare services revising Medicare’s indirect medical education payments to better reflect teaching hospitals’ costs Medicare’s vaccine coverage and payment separately payable drugs in the hospital [...]
Analysts Look at Medicare Wage System
The Congressional Research Service has published a new report on the Medicare hospital wage index system. The agency undertook its analysis because Some Members of Congress, hospitals, and independent analysts have expressed interest in the differences in Medicare hospital payments by geographic area, based on the wage index. Some of these stakeholders have recommended changes to the wage index to more accurately reflect labor market forces faced by hospitals. Although some modifications to the wage index have been implemented, there is no consensus about systematic reforms. In the report the [...]