Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
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 [...]
Medicaid Changes: More Than Just Work Requirements Coming?
While the green light for state applications to impose work requirements on their Medicaid recipients is receiving all of the attention, the Trump administration has issued guidance that appears to pave the way for other major changes in the Medicaid program as well. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued guidance that will enable states to pursue section 1115 waivers to test different ways of serving Medicaid patients that are otherwise not permitted under federal Medicaid law, including: establishing time limits on how many months or years [...]
A New Wave of Medicaid Expansion?
Spurred by the Trump administration’s invitation to states to apply for approval to make work requirements a part of their Medicaid program, a number of states that spurned the opportunity created for expansion under the Affordable Care Act may consider pursuing Medicaid expansion in the near future. Currently, some elected officials in Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming appear to be considering what they once considered unthinkable: making more of their residents eligible for Medicaid. For the most part, expansion talk is coming from moderate Republican legislators who [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met last week in Washington, D.C. to discuss a variety of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program issues. MACPAC, the non-partisan legislative branch agency that performs policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the administration, and the states, addressed a number of issues during the meeting. Among them it discussed Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) and voted to recommend that states be given the opportunity to seek permission to make Medicaid beneficiary enrollment in managed care plans mandatory [...]