Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Looking Ahead to New Health Plan Price Transparency Requirements
If the new health plan price transparency requirements proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are finalized later this year and implemented a year later, as anticipated, they will usher in significant changes in available data for use by consumers, providers, and businesses that collect, analyze, package, and sell such data. The anticipated changes in transparency requirements could include: Specific identification of rate changes from the most recently published rate. Reduced file sizes that eliminate some currently required data and a requirement that health plans post a single [...]
Telehealth May Discourage Low-Value Testing
A new study suggests that greater adoption of telehealth may be accompanied by reduced utilization of low-value medical testing – diagnostic tests, screenings, or procedures that seem to provide little to no clinical benefit to the patient and are increasingly considered unnecessary tests that waste resources despite evidence-based recommendations that they be prescribed less often. The study found that patients served by medical practices that embraced telehealth had slightly more overall visits a year but underwent fewer of seven of the 20 major low-value medical tests, many of which are [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for March 19
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for March 13-19. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. The White House President Trump has issued an executive order creating a Task Force to Eliminate Fraud that “…shall, on behalf of the President, coordinate and accelerate a comprehensive national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs, including programs administered jointly with State, local, tribal, and territorial partners.” The vice president will chair the task force, the Secretary of [...]
Health Care Workers May Get Relief From New H-1B Visa Fee
A bill newly introduced in the House would provide relief to non-U.S. born health care workers from the $100,000 fee for H-1B visas that was introduced by executive order last year. Under the Physicians and Healthcare Workforce Act, health care workers from other countries would not be required to pay the new $100,000 visa fee to emigrate to and work in the U.S. In introducing the measure, the bill’s bipartisan sponsors noted that the $100,000 visa fee will only exacerbate the current shortage of doctors and other health care workers. [...]
CMS Plans IDR Changes
The Independent Dispute Resolution process that is the central implementation mechanism of the No Surprises Act will soon undergo reengineering. Working with the Labor Department and the Department of the Treasury, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to transition the IDR process from single-use web forms into a new IDR gateway later this year. Previewing a process that it anticipates officially unveiling in the near future, CMS notes that through this new gateway, users be able to start and respond to disputes; gain access to dispute dashboards and [...]