Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Federal Health Policy Update for July 30
Don’t Miss: Two new final Medicare payment rules CMS seeks data on 340B prescriptions Agency seeks potentially confidential ER data The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for July 24-30. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress Senate Republicans remain focused on advancing a short-term continuing resolution (CR) before the August recess; it is expected to differ from the CR the House passed last week. The Senate appears unlikely to consider a budget resolution for a third party-line reconciliation [...]
SAMHSA Reports on the State of the American Mind
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has released its 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, its primary source of data on how Americans report their experience with mental health conditions, substance use and addiction, pursuit of treatment, and recovery. This year’s survey presents five years of data examining trends among key substance use and mental health outcomes. SAMHSA presents its findings are declines as increases in the prevalence of various behaviors, including: mental health substance use suicidal thoughts and [...]
Agency Seeks Confidential Accident Data From Hospitals
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking to require some hospitals to participate in its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), the nation's principal system for tracking consumer product-related injuries. Currently relying on manual review and coding of medical records from roughly 70 of the nation's more than 5,000 hospital emergency departments, the agency has announced that it will expand its surveillance network across all 50 states and to about 100 hospitals and health systems. Under the updated program, NEISS-R would exchange data with participating hospitals through federally designated Qualified Health Information Networks in an effort to strengthen the [...]
Developments in No Surprises Act/Independent Dispute Resolutions
Recent weeks have seen several developments and new information in the use of the No Surprises Act’s independent dispute resolution process for health care billing disputes between payers and providers over out-of-network care. The number of disputes directed to independent dispute resolution continues to rise – 16 percent more during the second half of 2025 than during the first half of that year. Providers continue to initiate about three-quarters of the disputes and to win about 85 percent of those cases. Most of the provider-driven disputes are intiated by small [...]
CMS Proposes Medicaid Provider Tax Regulation
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published a proposed rule that would implement a portion of H.R. 1, last year’s federal budget reconciliation bill, that called for establishing new indirect hold-harmless thresholds for health care-related taxes – primarily, provider taxes, which are currently employed in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Major changes include: Replacing the six percent safe harbor with state-specific thresholds based on July 4, 2025 structures. Prohibiting states from introducing new Medicaid provider taxes or increasing existing provider taxes that were in effect [...]