Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Governors Look at Surprise Medical Bills
While action on surprise medical bills may be slow in coming at the federal level, many states have introduced measures to address this challenge and others are exploring possible actions. Since 2017, 11 states have introduced surprise medical bill laws, six of them doing so this year alone. Surprise billing is an issue of importance to the nation’s governors, and their professional group, the National Governors Association, has prepared a report outlining the key issues they must address when attempting to craft surprise billing policies. Learn more about what governors [...]
ACA’s Medicaid Pay Bump Helped But Benefits Now Lost, Study Says
Health status and access to care improved for Medicaid patients when the Affordable Care Act mandated a temporary rate increase for physicians serving newly insured patients covered through that law’s Medicaid expansion. But when the mandate for increased physician payments ended and state Medicaid programs reverted to their previous, lower payments, many of those benefits were lost. Or so reports a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. According to the study, even a $10 rate increase improved access to care enough to reduce by 13 percent Medicaid [...]
CMS Chief Criticizes Health Care Proposals
In an address to the Better Medicare Alliance 2019 Medicare Advantage Summit, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma criticized Medicare for All proposals, said Medicare “public option” proposals are no better, and called the Affordable Care Act a failure,. Verma also insisted that greater reliance on market forces would improve Medicare and Medicaid, said the 340B prescription drug program is harming the health care system, and called for a reduction of federal regulations that limit how and where people can receive care. She said reduced regulations have [...]
Groups Seek to Block Medicaid Block Grants
Do not permit states to adopt block grants for their Medicaid programs, more than two dozen groups have asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A letter signed by the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, COPD Foundation, March of Dimes, United Way, and others states that Simply put, block grants and per capita caps will reduce access to quality and affordable healthcare for patients with serious chronic health conditions and are therefore unacceptable to our organizations. The letter explains that Per capita caps and block grants are designed [...]
Ways and Means Establishes Rural Health Task Force
The House Ways and Means Committee has established a new “Rural and Underserved Communities Health Task Force.” The purpose of the task force, according to a committee news release, will be to … convene members and experts to discuss the challenges of delivering health care in rural and underserved areas, and explore holistic bipartisan policy options that could improve outcomes and care in these communities. The task force will have bipartisan leadership. Learn more about the task force, its members, its objectives, and how it intends to proceed with this [...]