Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Budget Reconciliation Explained
Congress may use the federal budget reconciliation process to repeal some aspects of the Affordable Care Act. But what is the budget reconciliation process and how does it work? Kaiser Health News has created a brief video, with an accompanying transcript, that explains. Find that video here.
A New Approach to Treating the Underserved
Last month Congress passed the Expanding Capacity for Health Outcomes Act. The new law calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human services to study a New Mexico project that employs distance learning to enhance the ability of the medical community to serve medically underserved areas. Launched by the University of New Mexico in 2003, Project ECHO takes advantage of telehealth techniques to employ medical specialists who consult via videoconference with primary care providers. This approach can be employed to help patients in rural and underserved rural areas and [...]
Long-Awaited 340B Guidance Withdrawn
The long-awaited “guidance” that was expected to bring potentially major changes to the federal section 340B prescription drug discount program has been withdrawn by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration. The final guidance, based on proposed guidance released in mid-2015, was expected to redefine the patients, providers, and prescription drugs eligible to participate in the 340B program. The document was thought to be in the final stages of review by the Office of Management and Budget. Learn more about the proposed guidance, what it [...]
MACPAC Concerned About Prospect of Medicaid Block Grants
Members of the non-partisan legislative agency that advises Congress on Medicaid and CHIP issues expressed concern at their most recent meeting about the possibility of the federal government turning Medicaid into a block grant program. At their meeting in Washington, D.C. last week, members of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission discussed the steps they would need to take to advise policy-makers about the issues they would need to address in making such a major policy change and the possibility that such a shift would result in a [...]
MACPAC Meets, Discusses Medicaid DSH Issues
Last week the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met in Washington, D.C. to review aspects of its required March report to Congress and to address other Medicaid and CHIP issues. Included on the agenda of the meeting were: a review of chapters of the March report on Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) and monitoring of access to care; alternative approaches to state financing of their Medicaid programs; Medicaid coverage for low-income adults; and Medicaid program integrity issues. See the presentations used to help guide these discussions here, on [...]