Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
Inadequate Data Hinders Federal Approach to Health Equity
Federal efforts to develop and improve payment models and other programs designed to foster health equity are often hamstrung by poor data: inconsistent data requests from program to program and flawed and incomplete data reporting by those participating in those programs. As a result, federal policymakers often are unable to tell whether programs – both those developed specifically to address health equity and those that are not – are having the desired effect on health equity. The result, according to a new study from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for July 13
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for June 30 – July 13. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. 340B CMS has published a proposed regulation outlining how it plans to reimburse hospitals for reductions in 340B prescription drug payments that it implemented from 2018 to 2022 but that a federal court found to be illegal. The agency calculates that it owes participating 340B providers $9 billion, which it proposes paying to those providers in single lump-sum payments. CMS [...]
Price Transparency Compliance Rises With Penalties
Raising penalties for failure to comply with federal hospital price transparency requirements is increasing compliance with those requirements. Or so concludes a new JAMA Network report. According to a recently published study that examined nearly 4400 acute-care hospitals, … compliance with the 2021 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Price Transparency Rule increased from 70.4% in 2021 to 87.7% in 2022. Increases in compliance were significantly positively correlated with penalty size, which changed from a flat rate to a function of hospital bed counts. Compliance with the requirement, which [...]
MACPAC Looks at Medicaid State Directed Payments
In 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services authorized states to direct Medicaid managed care organizations to pay providers according to specific rates or methods. Typically, states use these arrangements, often referred to as state directed payments, to establish minimum payments for certain types of providers or to require participation in value-based payment arrangements. A few states, though, use state directed payments to require Medicaid managed care organizations to make large, additional payments to providers similar to supplemental payments their Medicaid fee-for-service programs. In a new issue brief, the [...]
Federal Health Policy Update for June 29
The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for June 23-29. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. The White House President Biden has issued an executive order on strengthening access to affordable contraception and family planning services for women with private health insurance and through Medicaid, Medicare, and federally supported health programs and to foster research on access. Learn more from this White House fact sheet and the administration’s executive order. Department of Health and Human Services HHS’s Office [...]