Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
GAO: CMS Needs to Do Better Job on Demonstration Evaluations
The federal government needs to do a better job of evaluating Medicaid demonstration programs, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Demonstration programs, on which the federal government spends more than $300 billion a year, exempt states from selected federal Medicaid requirements and regulations so they can test new approaches to providing and paying for care for their Medicaid population. As part of waiving these requirements, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires the states to perform or commission evaluations of the effectiveness of those new approaches. According to [...]
Administration Slows Movement Toward Medicare Quality Payments
The Trump administration is slowing Medicare’s movement toward making greater use of quality in its payment system. The Obama administration’s goal of having 50 percent of Medicare payments made through a quality or alternative payment model by the end of 2018 now appears to be out of sight. Instead, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has partially canceled two bundled payment programs – one for joint replacement and another for cardiac rehabilitation programs – and announced that before introducing new programs it wants to take a closer look at [...]
Senators Push IRS on Non-Profit Compliance
Two prominent senators have written to the Internal Revenue Service seeking information about what the agency is doing to ensure that non-profit hospitals comply with the requirements for providing sufficient community benefits to justify their tax-exempt status. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a senior member of that committee, have asked the IRS to provide their committee with specific information about how the IRS evaluates non-profit hospitals’ Form 990 Schedule H; about guidance the IRS provides regarding how hospitals define their communities [...]
Physician-Owned Hospitals Returning?
In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, new Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar indicated that he may be receptive to easing restrictions on physician-owned hospitals. The Affordable Care Act made it difficult for doctors either to launch new hospitals of their own or to expand physician-owned hospitals already in operation, and many existing physician-owned facilities stopped serving Medicare patients. In response to a question from a committee member, Azar expressed his interest in working to enable physician-owned hospitals to operate. Learn more from this Fierce Healthcare [...]
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
Shifting Medicare Part B drug coverage into Medicare Part D. Reducing Medicare Part D co-pays for generic drugs. Increasing the number of pharmacy benefit managers. Establishing expedited review for new versions of brand-name drugs. Tying U.S. drug prices to prices paid for the same drugs in other countries. Using U.S. trade policies to compel other countries to pay more for American pharmaceutical products. These are among the ideas presented in a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers detailing steps that might be taken to reduce prescription [...]