Policy Updates

Primary Care Accounts for Little Medicare Spending

Spending for primary care services accounts for only about two percent of Medicare fee-for-service spending, a new study has found. Even when the concept of primary care is expanded to include services provided by nurse practitioners, physician assistants, geriatricians, and gynecologists, all of whom bill for primary care services, that figure rises only to 4.88 percent. The proportion of primary care spending falls as Medicare beneficiaries age, a reflection of their greater consumption of specialist, hospital, and surgical care as they get older. Primary care spending was even lower among Medicare-eligible African-American, Native American, Medicaid-eligible seniors, and individuals with chronic [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-24T06:00:20-04:00April 24, 2019|Medicare|

Healthier Behavior Could Yield Sweet News

Improved behavior could save lives and money, two recent studies show. A report published by the JAMA Network found that if just one percent of Medicaid recipients stopped smoking, Medicaid would save $2.6 billion a year, with a median annual state savings of $25 million. Another study, posted by AHA Journals, concludes that improved nutrition labeling that better highlights products’ sugar content could change behavior in ways that would save more than $30 billion in health care costs over the next 20 years – and as much as nearly $60 billion if manufacturers respond to improved sugar labeling by re-engineering [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-22T10:48:20-04:00April 22, 2019|Uncategorized|

Low-Income Patients More Likely to End Up in Low-Quality SNFs

Dually eligible individuals are more likely than others to find themselves in low-rated skilled nursing facilities, recent research has found. According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology, more than 50 percent of dually eligible individuals – those covered by both Medicare and Medicaid – who are admitted to skilled nursing facilities are served by facilities that have low (one or two stars) ratings under Medicare’s five-star quality rating system for nursing homes. Overall, the dually eligible are 9.7 percentage points more likely than patients not on Medicaid to be served by lower-rated facilities. The education of [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-19T06:00:35-04:00April 19, 2019|Medicaid, Medicare post-acute care, post-acute care|

Groups Seek Funding for Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education

Provide $400 million in funding for children’s hospital graduate medical education programs in the FY 2020 budget, 28 groups have asked congressional leaders in a recent letter. The letter, sent to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies and the same subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, notes that Sustaining pediatric training programs at children’s hospitals to meet the need of children, now and in the future, requires bolstering our national commitment. Support for training pediatric providers through CHGME (children’s hospitals graduate medical education) lags behind the [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-18T06:00:17-04:00April 18, 2019|hospitals|

MACPAC Recommends Changes in Medicaid Shortfall Definition

Hospitals’ calculation of their Medicaid shortfall would change under a recommendation that MACPAC voted to make to Congress. That change, in turn, could affect hospitals’ future Medicaid disproportionate share payments. Last week the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission voted overwhelmingly to change how hospitals calculate their Medicaid shortfall: the difference between what they spend caring for their Medicaid patients and what Medicaid pays them for that care. Under MACPAC’s proposal, hospitals would need to deduct from their shortfall total all third-party payments they receive for the care they provide to their Medicaid patients. If this proposal were to [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-17T06:00:13-04:00April 17, 2019|hospitals, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments|

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 Commission wrapped up its work on the June 2019 Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP at the April meeting, with sessions reviewing four of the report’s five draft chapters on Thursday morning, and votes on potential recommendations later in the afternoon. First on Thursday’s agenda was a draft June chapter on Medicaid prescription drug policy, which contained draft recommendations to provide states with a grace period to determine Medicaid drug coverage and [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-16T06:00:59-04:00April 16, 2019|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid regulations|

Medicare Advantage Permitted to Address Non-medical Needs

Starting in 2020, Medicare Advantage plans will be permitted to provide non-medical benefits to their chronically ill members. As described in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ “final call letter’ for 2020, MA [Medicare Advantage] plans are not prohibited from offering an item or service that can be expected to improve or maintain the health or overall function of an enrollee only while the enrollee is using it. In other words, the statute does not require that the maintenance or improvement expected from an SSBCI [special supplemental benefits for the chronically ill] result in a permanent change in an [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-16T06:00:54-04:00April 16, 2019|Medicare|

Feds Looking to Bundle Medicare Post-Acute Payments?

Bring us your ideas for bundling Medicare post-acute-care payments, the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation recently told a gathering of hospital officials in Washington, D.C. As reported by Fierce Healthcare, CMMI director Adam Boehler told hospital officials that Now is the time to bring us ideas. We’re really in listening mode…I think there’s been a lot of intrigue and interest we’ve heard from people. So we’re gathering stakeholder input there on that and it’s a great time to give us thoughts on where we can lower costs. Learn more from the Fierce Healthcare article "CMMI's Adam [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-15T06:00:16-04:00April 15, 2019|Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, CMMI, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, post-acute care|

SNF Discharge May Affect Hospital Readmission Rates

Heart failure patients discharged from skilled nursing facilities after two days or less may be as much as four times more likely to be readmitted to a hospital than those who stay longer, according to a new analysis. The study also found that the hospital readmission rate falls by half for patients who remain in a skilled nursing facility for one to two weeks. The analysis evaluated Medicare data for heart failure patients at least 65 years old and did not adjust for their severity of illness. These findings suggest that the current emphasis on limiting patients’ time in post-acute-care [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-11T06:00:21-04:00April 11, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, post-acute care|

Medicaid Expansion Helping FQHCs

Federally qualified health centers have benefited from Medicaid expansion, a new survey has found. According to a new Commonwealth Fund report, a survey comparing FQHCs in states that expanded their Medicaid programs to FQHCs in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs found that FQHCs in expansion states are: more financially stable more likely to provide behavioral health services, including medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, counseling, and coordination of care with social service providers more likely to engage in value-based care Because of Medicaid expansion, FQHCs now are paid for services they previously provided at no charge to low-income, [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-10T06:00:05-04:00April 10, 2019|Medicaid|