Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
States Not Waiting for Feds to Act on More Affordable Health Insurance
Frustrated over the inability of the federal government to develop and implement policies that make health insurance more affordable, a number of states are taking matters into their own hands in a variety of ways. In 2018 and 2019 at least a dozen states enacted policies designed to make health insurance more affordable. Among the steps they took where: premium stabilization programs requirements to maintain adequate coverage financial assistance to improve coverage affordability regulation of non-Affordable Care Act-compliance coverage rules to promote marketplace competition state coverage options standard plan designs [...]
GAO: Feds Need Better Oversight of 340B Eligibility
The federal government needs to do a better job of ensuring that non-government hospital participants in the 340B prescription drug discount program are eligible for that program, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded in a recent report. With growing numbers of non-government hospitals now participating in the 340B program, the GAO found that the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the program, is not doing enough to ensure that these hospitals meet the criteria for inclusion in the program. In particular, the GAO found, HRSA needs to do [...]
Medicaid Expansion Slows Opioid Deaths
Opioid deaths are less likely to occur in states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new study. According to the study, Adoption of Medicaid expansion was associated with a 6% lower rate of total opioid overdose deaths compared with the rate in nonexpansion states... Counties in expansion states had an 11% lower rate of death involving heroin… and a 10% lower rate of death involving synthetic opioids other than methadone… compared with counties in nonexpansion states. In addition, Medicaid expansion, the study found, [...]
Hospital Outpatient Visits Down
For the first time in 35 years, hospital outpatient volume declined in 2019. Despite the trend toward delivery of more health care in outpatient settings, hospitals saw fewer outpatients in 2019 as more people turned to urgent care settings and other clinics for outpatient services. Much of the decline was in emergency room visits, with patients also turning to urgent care facilities for non-emergency services they traditionally sought in hospital ERs. Despite the decline in volume, hospitals saw their net outpatient revenue rise 4.5 percent in 2019. Learn more about [...]
Interview With Seema Verma
In late December, PBS broadcast an interview with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma. Kaiser Health News has published a transcript of excerpts from that interview during which Verma discusses Medicaid – including enrollment, eligibility, services, and children – Medicare for all, administration attempts to reduce health care costs, protection for people with pre-existing conditions, and more. Read those excerpts in the Kaiser Health News article “One-On-One With Trump’s Medicare And Medicaid Chief: Seema Verma."