Policy Updates

New Public Charge Rule Could Affect Immigrants, Providers

Legal immigrants may become reluctant to seek government-sponsored health care and providers may find themselves delivering more uncompensated care in the wake of the adoption of a new federal “public charge” regulation that seeks to define more narrowly the kinds of individuals who should be granted entry to the U.S. in the future. The new Department of Homeland Security regulation, while focused on applicants for entry into the U.S., could have the unintended effect of discouraging legal immigrants from enrolling in Medicaid, CHIP, and other government programs and even lead them to disenroll from such programs out of a mistaken [...]

iqtsupport2019-08-14T09:26:39-04:00August 14, 2019|Uncategorized|

Can Medicare Feed its Way Out of Some Readmissions?

Feeding some Medicare patients after they are discharged from the hospital could reduce readmissions and save taxpayers millions, a new study has concluded. According to the new Bipartisan Policy Center report Next Steps in Chronic Care: Expanding Innovative Medicare Benefits, providing a limited number of free meals to certain Medicare patients could eliminate nearly 10,000 readmissions a year and save more than $57 million. Participating patients would be those with more than one of a limited number of chronic medical conditions and the meals would be for one week only. According to the report, more than 575,000 Medicare beneficiaries would [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-31T06:00:03-04:00July 31, 2019|Medicare|

Update Patient Satisfaction Survey, Hospital Groups Suggest

The survey that asks patients about their satisfaction with their hospital experience should be revised, several hospital groups have declared. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey has become outdated and needs revision, according to the Federation of American Hospitals, the American Hospital Association, America’s Essential Hospitals, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Catholic Health Association of America. According to the hospital groups, the 32-question HCAHPS survey needs to be updated to address more effectively matters involving value-based care, health care technology, patient priorities, and post-discharge transitional care. The groups also called for the survey [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-30T06:00:39-04:00July 30, 2019|Uncategorized|

New Bill Would Address Social Determinants of Health

The federal government would provide funding to help address social determinants of health within Medicaid populations under a new bill introduced in the House of Representatives last week. According to a legislative summary prepared by one of the bipartisan bill’s sponsors, Economic and social conditions have a powerful impact on our health and wellness. Stable housing, reliable transportation and access to healthy foods are all factors that can make a difference in the prevention and management of many health conditions like diabetes, asthma and heart disease. Known as social determinants of health, a focus on these non-medical factors can improve [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-29T06:00:11-04:00July 29, 2019|Congress|

Governors Look at Surprise Medical Bills

While action on surprise medical bills may be slow in coming at the federal level, many states have introduced measures to address this challenge and others are exploring possible actions. Since 2017, 11 states have introduced surprise medical bill laws, six of them doing so this year alone. Surprise billing is an issue of importance to the nation’s governors, and their professional group, the National Governors Association, has prepared a report outlining the key issues they must address when attempting to craft surprise billing policies. Learn more about what governors view as the key considerations in developing such policies in [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-26T09:57:52-04:00July 26, 2019|Uncategorized|

ACA’s Medicaid Pay Bump Helped But Benefits Now Lost, Study Says

Health status and access to care improved for Medicaid patients when the Affordable Care Act mandated a temporary rate increase for physicians serving newly insured patients covered through that law’s Medicaid expansion. But when the mandate for increased physician payments ended and state Medicaid programs reverted to their previous, lower payments, many of those benefits were lost. Or so reports a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. According to the study, even a $10 rate increase improved access to care enough to reduce by 13 percent Medicaid recipients’ complaints about not being about to find a doctor. [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-24T06:00:47-04:00July 24, 2019|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

CMS Chief Criticizes Health Care Proposals

In an address to the Better Medicare Alliance 2019 Medicare Advantage Summit, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma criticized Medicare for All proposals, said Medicare “public option” proposals are no better, and called the Affordable Care Act a failure,. Verma also insisted that greater reliance on market forces would improve Medicare and Medicaid, said the 340B prescription drug program is harming the health care system, and called for a reduction of federal regulations that limit how and where people can receive care. She said reduced regulations have spurred hundreds of new plans to participate in the Medicare [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-23T10:10:59-04:00July 23, 2019|340b, Affordable Care Act, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare regulations|

Groups Seek to Block Medicaid Block Grants

Do not permit states to adopt block grants for their Medicaid programs, more than two dozen groups have asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A letter signed by the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, COPD Foundation, March of Dimes, United Way, and others states that Simply put, block grants and per capita caps will reduce access to quality and affordable healthcare for patients with serious chronic health conditions and are therefore unacceptable to our organizations. The letter explains that Per capita caps and block grants are designed to reduce federal funding for Medicaid, forcing states to either [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-22T06:00:38-04:00July 22, 2019|Medicaid|

Ways and Means Establishes Rural Health Task Force

The House Ways and Means Committee has established a new “Rural and Underserved Communities Health Task Force.” The purpose of the task force, according to a committee news release, will be to … convene members and experts to discuss the challenges of delivering health care in rural and underserved areas, and explore holistic bipartisan policy options that could improve outcomes and care in these communities. The task force will have bipartisan leadership. Learn more about the task force, its members, its objectives, and how it intends to proceed with this work in this Ways and Means Committee news release.

iqtsupport2019-07-19T06:00:16-04:00July 19, 2019|Congress|

Trading Loan Forgiveness for Serving Medicaid Patients

The state of California is paying off some doctors’ medical school debts in exchange for a commitment to care for Medicaid patients. Under a new state program, physicians and dentists can see their medical debt eliminated or greatly reduced in exchange for a five-year commitment during which at least 30 percent of their patients are served by Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. The state expects to spend $340 million in this manner in the coming year, with the money coming from Proposition 56 tobacco tax revenue. That measure included a $2 tax increase on every pack of cigarettes sold in [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-17T10:28:28-04:00July 17, 2019|Medicaid|