Policy Updates

Coronavirus Update for Friday, August 14

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, August 14. Provider Relief Fund HHS announced that it will distribute $1.4 billion in CARES Act Provider Relief Fund grants to nearly 80 free-standing children’s hospitals. Qualifying children’s hospitals must be either an exempt hospital under CMS’s Medicare inpatient prospective payment system or be a HRSA-defined Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education facility. Eligible hospitals will receive 2.5 percent of their net revenue from patient care. Qualifying free-standing children’s hospitals will begin receiving grants next week. Learn more from this HHS news release. Department [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-17T06:00:42-04:00August 17, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19|

Health Care Workers Inadequately Protected by March Legislation

Many health care workers sickened by COVID-19 are not receiving the paid sick leave anticipated by a federal law passed in March, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General. Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, new protections were to be established to ensure that health care workers and others had access to additional paid sick leave for COVID-19-related illnesses. According to the OIG, however, the Labor Department’s stated exemptions to the March law are overly broad, leaving as many as nine million health care workers without the paid sick leave [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-14T06:00:58-04:00August 14, 2020|Congress, Coronavirus, COVID-19|

Coronavirus Update for Tuesday, August 11

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 11. Provider Relief Fund Eligible providers may now apply for Provider Relief Fund phase 2 general distributions. These are providers that are being given another opportunity to receive Provider Relief Fund payments after missing the June 3, 2020 deadline to apply for funding equal to two percent of their total patient care revenue from the $20 billion portion of the $50 billion phase 1 general distribution; this group also includes Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), dental providers with low Medicare revenues, [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-12T06:00:23-04:00August 12, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19|

OIG Cites Medicare, Medicaid Among Top Unimplemented Recommendations

CMS has failed to implement many of the policy changes recommended to it by HHS’s Office of the Inspector General, according to a new OIG report. Every year the Department of Health and Human Services’ OIG offers recommendations for policy changes designed to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in HHS programs. This week, the OIG published “OIG’s Top Unimplemented Recommendations: Solutions to Reduce Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in HHS Programs.” Among the top 25 unimplemented recommendations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are 14 involving Medicare and Medicaid. Its top 10 unimplemented Medicare recommendations are: CMS should take [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-11T10:33:28-04:00August 11, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy|

Coronavirus Update for Friday, August 7

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, August 7. White House: Executive Order The White House issued an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to extend permanently some of the Medicare telehealth waivers initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency; to simplify Medicare billing codes and propose a payment model to improve health care in rural areas; and to encourage the Department of Agriculture and Federal Communications Commission to invest in technology that enhances access to telehealth services. The administration’s plans for following through on this [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-10T06:00:06-04:00August 10, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19|

Feds Propose Changing Medicare DSH Calculation

Medicare DSH payments would reflect hospitals’ Medicare Advantage inpatient days under a new regulation proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Under the newly proposed rule, the formula for calculating Medicare disproportionate share payments would incorporate hospitals’ Medicare Advantage inpatient days and not just their fee-for-service inpatient days. Medicare DSH payments are made to hospitals that serve especially high proportions of low-income and uninsured patients and are intended to help them with the cost of providing those services. Go here to see the proposed regulation.

iqtsupport2020-08-07T06:00:49-04:00August 7, 2020|Medicare disproportionate share, Medicare DSH, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy|

CMS Proposes New Medicare Payments for 2021

Medicare will change its provider payments for two types of Medicare-covered services in 2021 and has proposed changes in payments for three other Medicare-covered services in a flurry of activity over the past week. Last week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized new 2021 Medicare payment rates for: skilled nursing facilities hospice services inpatient psychiatric facilities In addition, this week CMS proposed new 2021 Medicare rates for: physician services outpatient and ambulatory surgical services The proposed changes in Medicare provider payments for physician services and outpatient and ambulatory surgical services are subject to a public comment period before [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-06T06:00:39-04:00August 6, 2020|Medicare, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, post-acute care|

Loan Repayment Looms for Hospitals

Unless Congress intervenes, hospitals will soon begin repaying massive federal loans they received to help them cope with the COVID-19 public health emergency. The loans, authorized by the federal CARES Act, were made through the Accelerated and Advance Loan Program, and in all, Medicare made nearly $100 billion in such loans to providers. Under the legislation, Medicare was to begin recouping the loans 120 days after hospitals received them, with recoupment coming by Medicare ceasing to pay hospitals’ Medicare claims until the full amount of the loan was repaid. Now the loans are coming due but hospitals are saying they [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-05T13:00:56-04:00August 5, 2020|Medicare|

Court Supports HHS on 340B Cut

The federal government may institute a nearly 30 percent cut in payments to some hospitals for prescription drugs, a federal court has ruled. The cut, to the 340B program, was first proposed in 2017 the Department of Health and Human Services but has been blocked by the courts ever since. Last week, though, a federal appeals court paved the way for the reduction. Hospitals that serve especially large numbers of low-income patients participate in the federal 340B prescription drug discount program, which gives them discounts on prescriptions they distribute to low-income outpatients. Under the program, participating hospitals are then supposed [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-05T06:00:09-04:00August 5, 2020|340b|

Coronavirus Update for Monday, August 3

The following is the latest information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Monday, August 3. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has issued a news alert titled “HHS Extends Application Deadline for Medicaid Providers and Plans to Reopen Portal to Certain Medicare Providers.” This means some providers will have new opportunities to pursue grants from the CARES Act’s Provider Relief Fund. The major subjects of this news release are: HHS is extending the deadline for applying for the phase 2 general distribution to Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, CHIP, and dental providers to August 28. The web [...]

iqtsupport2020-08-04T06:00:14-04:00August 4, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19|