Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
MedPAC Offers 2021 Medicare Rate Recommendations
MedPAC has recommended to Congress changes in Medicare payment rates in the coming year. In its annual report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended the following rate changes: acute-care hospitals – a two percent rate increase and a suggestion that the difference between this two percent increase and the payment increase specified by law be used to increase the rewards hospitals may earn under Medicare’s hospital value incentive program. As a result, the value incentive program would offer a possible 0.8 percent in bonus payments, and with the [...]
The Latest CMS and CDC Info on COVID-19 Measures
CMS updates COVID-19 guidelines, regulations, the waiving of regulations, and more daily on the “Current Emergencies” page of the CMS website. Find it here. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regularly posts COVIS-19 updates of its own. Find them here.
CMS Posts COVID-19 FAQ for State Medicaid and CHIP Agencies
State Medicaid agencies and CHIP programs have received new guidance on the federal resources available to them to fight the COVID-19 national health emergency through a new FAQ published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week. Among the issues addressed in the FAQ are eligibility, enrollment, benefits, cost sharing, workforce issues, telehealth, and more. Health care providers may find this information useful when serving their patients. See CMS’s news release describing the FAQ here and the FAQ itself here.
CMS Authorizes Waiving of Some Medicare Coronavirus Fees
Medicare Advantage organizations, Medicare Part D plans, and Medicare-Medicaid managed care plans have been directed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to waive cost-sharing for testing and treatment of the novel coronavirus. This news was transmitted to those payers in a March 10 letter from CMS. The directive also authorizes Medicare Advantage plans to waive coronavirus-related telehealth fees and authorizes Part D plans to relax refill-too-soon limits, provide maximum expended day supplies of prescription drugs, reimburse enrollees for prescription drugs obtained from out-of-network pharmacies, ease prior authorization limits [...]
Block Grants Could Hurt Medicaid, Study Finds
A switch to block grants to fund state Medicaid programs “…would require states to cut coverage, reduce benefits, increase cost-sharing, lower provider payment rates, or otherwise reduce Medicaid expenditures as compared to current law spending levels” according to a new Commonwealth Fund study. The study, conducted in the wake of the Trump administration’s new guidance on how states can transform their Medicaid programs into block grants and its encouragement that they do so, suggests that such efforts could result in considerable harm to Medicaid beneficiaries, providers of Medicaid-covered services, and [...]