Medicaid DSH allotments

Federal Health Policy Update for December 20

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government December 14-20. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress The House is in recess until January 9. The Senate has delayed its recess to continue negotiations on a possible foreign aid and border policy deal. Democrats from the House Ways and Means Committee have published a report on the relationship between the U.S. health care system and climate change. View their report “Health Care and the Climate Crisis: Preparing America’s Health Care Infrastructure.” No Surprises Act The federal government has reopened the [...]

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the meeting. MACPAC’s December 2023 meeting opened with a session that highlighted findings related to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection as part of the Commission’s focus on the collection of primary language and limited English proficiency, SOGI, and disability data for the purposes of assessing and addressing health disparities. During this discussion, we reviewed the purpose of SOGI data and federal and state priorities for collecting these data, which includes an overview of [...]

joe2023-12-19T15:36:42-05:00December 19, 2023|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, health equity, hospitals, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid regulations|

Federal Health Policy Update for December 7

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for December 1-7. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress While Congress has more than a month before the next federal funding deadline of January 19, committees are working to prepare and pass health care legislation. On the House calendar for floor votes next week is H.R. 5378, the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act. This bill would eliminate the pending cuts to Medicaid DSH for two years (those cuts are temporarily suspended through January 19); introduce site-neutral payments for drug administration services [...]

joe2023-12-07T21:50:17-05:00December 7, 2023|340b, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, COVID-19, health equity, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid regulations, Medicare, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy|

Federal Health Policy Update for November 16

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for November 10-16. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress This week Congress passed another continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government beyond Friday, when the current CR expires. This bill establishes two separate deadlines for lawmakers to pass certain spending bills so they can avoid an omnibus bill that includes all 12 appropriations bills. Congress must pass four of the spending bills by January 19 and the other bills by February 2. The Labor, HHS, and Education bill, one of [...]

Federal Health Policy Update for October 26

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for October 20-26. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress More than three weeks after House Republicans voted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA) out of the speaker’s office, the House has elected Rep. Mike Johnson (LA) to the position. Speaker Johnson is a social conservative and has pushed for cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, including plans to roll back Medicaid expansion in 2019. The Speaker has said he intends for the House to take up as many FY 2024 spending bills as possible [...]

iqtsupport2023-10-26T15:51:16-04:00October 26, 2023|340b, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Federal Health Policy Update for October 19

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for October 13-19. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress At this moment there is still no Speaker of the House of Representatives. After 20 and then 22 House Republicans voted against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Mr. Jordan has joined others, including senior Democrats, in supporting a plan to expand the powers of the temporary speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Mr. Jordan remains the speaker designee, an option that will enable him to continue to seek [...]

iqtsupport2023-10-19T15:01:13-04:00October 19, 2023|Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMMI, COVID-19, health equity, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, Telehealth|

Federal Health Policy Update for October 5

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for September 29 to October 5. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress Last Saturday, Congress passed a 45-day continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through November 17. Part of that limited CR includes a delay of the scheduled $8 billion cut to Medicaid DSH allotments to states through the end of the CR. The bill also extends funding for community health centers and the National Health Services Corps for the same length of time. Congress will have to act [...]

iqtsupport2023-10-05T14:53:32-04:00October 5, 2023|Alternative payment models, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMMI, Congress, COVID-19, health equity, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicare, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Federal Health Policy Update for September 28

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for September 22-28. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. The White House President Biden has signed H.R. 2544, the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act, which provides for awarding multiple grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to operate the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Congress Congressional leaders have not come to agreement on how to avert a federal government shutdown this weekend. While Senate leaders introduced a continuing resolution that would fund the government through November 17, that bill has [...]

iqtsupport2023-09-28T16:38:25-04:00September 28, 2023|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, COVID-19, health equity, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicare, Telehealth|

MACPAC Proposes New Approach to Helping Safety-Net Hospitals

To improve “…the relationship between total state and federal DSH [Medicaid disproportionate share] funding and the number of non-elderly low-income individuals in a state,” the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission has urged Congress to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to change how it calculates Medicaid DSH allotments to the states. This year MACPAC devotes a significant portion of its annual report to Congress to payment policy for safety-net hospitals, and in summarizing its proposal it writes that: In order to reduce the wide variation in state disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotments based on historical spending, [...]

iqtsupport2023-06-26T06:00:13-04:00June 26, 2023|Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments|

Federal Health Policy Update for June 22

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for June 9-22. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CMS has announced new flexibilities to help keep Americans insured as states resume Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) renewals. The new flexibilities were announced in a letter sent by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to the nation’s governors urging them to adopt all available flexibilities to minimize avoidable coverage losses among children and families. The new flexibilities include permitting managed care plans to assist people currently [...]

iqtsupport2023-06-22T16:04:30-04:00June 22, 2023|Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, COVID-19, hospitals, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, Telehealth|