Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Short-Term Plans May Short-Change Purchasers
The short-term health insurance plans that the administration proposes making more available to consumers as an alternative to comprehensive health insurance that meets Affordable Care Act coverage requirements may leave consumers with greater out-of-pocket costs and less coverage for some critical services. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation review of available short-term, limited duration plans in 10 markets across the country, those plans: often do not cover mental health and substance abuse services and outpatient prescription drugs may turn down individuals or charge them higher premiums based on age, gender, [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the administration, and the states on Medicaid and CHIP issues, met publicly in Washington, D.C. last week. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of its two days of meetings. The April 2018 meeting began with session on social determinants of health. Panelists Jocelyn Guyer of Manatt Health Solutions, Arlene Ash of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Kevin Moore of UnitedHealthcare Community & State discussed state approaches to financing social interventions through Medicaid. [...]
ACA Has Increased Primary Care Utilization
A new study found that the increase in the number of insured Americans as a result of the Affordable Care Act has resulted in increased utilization of primary health care services. According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, primary care utilization rose 3.8 percent, mammograms 1.5 percent, HIV tests 2.1 percent, and flu shots 1.9 percent over a three-year period. The study suggests that preventive care increased between 17 and 50 percent. The study attributes all of the gains to improved access to private insurance and [...]
MedPAC Mulls Uniform Outcome Measures to Complement Unified Post-Acute Payments
In support of its proposal that Medicare adopt a unified payment system for post-acute-care services, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is exploring how to develop uniform outcome measures to support such a new payment system. Under the MedPAC vision, articulated at its early April public meeting, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, long-term-care hospitals, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities would see their outcomes quantified based on their performance on a series of quality measures. Meanwhile, there has been little congressional interest in the unified post-acute payment proposal so far. While some [...]
MedPAC to Congress: Cut Payments to Freestanding Emergency Facilities
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has urged Congress to reduce Medicare payments to freestanding emergency departments 30 percent. The recommendation, approved by MedPAC earlier this month and to be included in its June report to Congress, notes that such facilities have a lower cost structure because they typically lack some of the equipment, personnel, and standby capabilities of hospital ERs. In making its recommendation, MedPAC also noted that freestanding ERs typically treat patients whose conditions are not as severe as hospital ERs and tend to be located in areas that [...]