Medicaid DSH

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. Supporting the discussion were the following briefing papers: Background on Medicaid Race and Ethnicity Data Collection and Reporting State Strategies and Stakeholder Engagement for Unwinding the Public Health Emergency Continuous Coverage Requirement Improving Rate Setting and Risk Mitigation in Medicaid Managed Care Principles for Assessing Medicaid Nursing Facility Payments Relative to Costs Countercyclical Disproportionate Share Hospital Policies Medicaid Coverage of Monoclonal Antibodies Directed Against Amyloid for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease Review of Proposed Rule on Core Set Reporting and Congressional Request for [...]

iqtsupport2022-09-23T06:00:12-04:00September 23, 2022|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid long-term services and supports, Medicaid managed care|

Federal Health Policy Update for Wednesday, March 16

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Provider Relief Fund On March 22, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (eastern), the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program will stop accepting claims for testing and treatment due to lack of funds. On April 5, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (eastern), the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program and COVID-19 Coverage Assistance Fund will stop accepting vaccination claims due to a lack of funds. See the announcement of these changes. Providers that received Provider [...]

iqtsupport2022-03-16T17:41:14-04:00March 16, 2022|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Coronavirus, COVID-19, hospitals, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid upper-payment limit, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Federal Health Policy Update for Thursday, December 16

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government as of 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, December 16. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Provider Relief Fund HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is releasing $9 billion in phase 4 Provider Relief Fund grants. Payments will average $58,000 for what HHS is calling “small” providers, $289,000 for medium providers, and $1.7 million for large providers. Learn more about the release of these funds from this HHS news release and go here for an explanation of how the agency calculated the payments. [...]

iqtsupport2021-12-16T16:47:23-05:00December 16, 2021|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, Coronavirus, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy|

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 sessions. The October 2020 MACPAC meeting opened with a panel discussion on restarting Medicaid eligibility redeterminations when the public health emergency ends. It included Jennifer Wagner, director of Medicaid eligibility and enrollment at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; René Mollow, deputy director for health care benefits and eligibility at the California Department of Health Care Services; and Lee Guice, director of policy and operations at the Department for Medicaid Services, Kentucky Cabinet for [...]

iqtsupport2020-11-05T06:00:25-05:00November 5, 2020|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid regulations|

Congress Gives Hospitals Medicaid DSH Relief

Medicaid DSH allocations to states will not be reduced right away thanks to a new continuing resolution to fund the federal government through December 11. The Medicare disproportionate share allocation cuts to the states, mandated by the Affordable Care Act but delayed by Congress several times, were delayed again earlier this year but scheduled to take effect on November 11. With the latest continuing resolution, the cuts will be delayed yet another month. Learn more about the delay of Medicaid DSH cuts and other aspects of the continuing resolution that affect hospitals in the Healthcare Dive article “Providers win Medicare [...]

iqtsupport2020-10-08T13:00:57-04:00October 8, 2020|Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH|

Coronavirus Update for Wednesday, September 23

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23. Continuing Resolution to Fund the Federal Government The House has passed, and the Senate is expected to take up and pass as soon as this week, a continuing resolution to fund the federal government from the beginning of the new fiscal year, on October 1, through December 11; the president is expected to sign the measure. Key health care provisions in this continuing resolution include: Changes in the Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment Program that extend the period before repayment begins and [...]

iqtsupport2020-09-24T13:31:41-04:00September 24, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH|

CMS Provides Guidance on Medicaid DSH Calculations

State Medicaid program accounting for hospital uncompensated care when calculating hospital-specific Medicaid disproportionate share limits is the subject of new guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In the guidance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services explains that because of several court rulings, states can decide for themselves whether to offset third-party payer payments from costs in their Medicaid DSH calculations for periods prior to June 2, 2017 but that beginning with that date, CMS will enforce its own interpretation of the policy. In new guidance, CMS presents two methodologies for accounting for its mid-year policy change [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-29T13:00:57-04:00August 29, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid regulations|

MFAR Backlash Continues

Diverse health care and government interests are rallying around their opposition to the proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability rule. The regulation, proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in November, would impose new limits on the ability of states to finance their share of their Medicaid spending, potentially jeopardizing provider payments and the ability of high-volume Medicaid providers to operate without suffering great losses. In all, CMS received more than 4200 written comments in response to the proposed regulation, most of them expressing opposition. Among those doing so were state governments, the National Governors Association, hospitals and hospital associations, [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-02T06:00:22-05:00March 2, 2020|Medicaid, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid regulations|

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 sessions. The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission kicked off its December meeting with highlights from its forthcoming issue of MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book, due out December 18, 2019. MACStats brings together statistics on Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment and spending, federal matching rates, eligibility levels, and access to care measures, which come from multiple sources. Later the Commission discussed a proposed rule that the Centers for Medicare [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-16T13:50:19-05:00December 16, 2019|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid regulations, Medicaid upper-payment limit|

Prescription Drug Bill Would Kill Two Years of Medicaid DSH Cuts

Two years of Medicaid DSH cuts would be eliminated under a new prescription drug bill released last week by the Senate Finance Committee. The Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act includes a provision that would eliminate two years of Affordable Care Act-mandated cuts in the allocation of federal money to the states for Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH). Those cuts have been delayed several times by Congress but were scheduled to begin in October of 2019 and run through federal FY 2025, only to be delayed again twice by continuing resolutions adopted by Congress to fund the federal government [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-10T13:00:30-05:00December 10, 2019|Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments|