Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
340B Changes Would Hurt Hospital Margins
Proposed changes in the federal section 340B prescription drug discount program would hurt hospital margins. So says Moody’s Investors Service, the credit rating agency. According to Moody’s, the margins of non-profit hospitals are already under pressure because revenue increases are not keeping pace with prescription drug costs. Reductions of payments under the 340B program recently proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would make a challenging situation worse, Moody’s speculates. Under the 340B program, eligible hospitals purchase prescription drugs at a discount, supply them to eligible outpatients, and [...]
Suit Claims Low Medicaid Rates are Discriminatory
A lawsuit filed in state courts in California argues that the state’s low Medicaid payments amount to discrimination against the state’s large Hispanic Medicaid population. California pays among the lowest rates in the country to physicians, making health care inaccessible for some, and the suit maintains that this is a civil rights issue in which low rates amount to discrimination. The suit is based on state anti-discrimination and equal protection laws, and many other states have similar laws on the books. Observers question whether the low rates constitute discrimination against [...]
House Committee Looks at 340B
Are hospitals using the savings generated by their participation in the section 340B prescription drug discount program to help their low-income and uninsured patients? That’s what the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee is asking. Earlier this year the committee requested such information from the Health Services and Resources Administration, which runs the 340B program, and now it’s asking hospitals as well. Specifically, the subcommittee sent five-page letters to 19 providers that participate in the 340B program asking them about: the quantity of 340B-purchased drugs they dispense to Medicare [...]
GAO: Improvement Needed in MLTSS Oversight
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services needs to improve the job it does overseeing state Medicaid programs of managed long-term services and supports. According to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 22 states use MLTSS programs to help qualified seniors continue living independently in the community and to save money on nursing home costs. CMS’s oversight of these efforts, and of the use of federal funds, is inconsistent and often falls short when monitoring key considerations such as provider network adequacy, critical incidents, and appeals and [...]
MACPAC Meets
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met recently in Washington, D.C. Among the issues MACPAC commissioners discussed during their two-day meeting were: delivery system reform incentive payment programs Medicaid enrollment and renewal processes managed care oversight monitoring and evaluating section 11115 demonstration waivers Medicaid coverage of telemedicine services MACPAC advises the administration, Congress, and the states on Medicaid and CHIP issues. It is a non-partisan agency of the legislative branch of government. Go here to find background information on these and other subjects as well as links to [...]