Seema Verma

CMS to Look at Accrediting Agencies

Health care accrediting organizations will be the subject of scrutiny and possible action by the federal government in the coming months. At a recent conference, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seem Verma said that Receiving CMS’s authorization to inspect and deem healthcare providers compliant with Medicare’s quality standards is nothing short of assuming a sacred public trust…But an increasing amount of evidence indicates that accrediting organizations are not living up to that high bar. According to Verma, CMS’s interest is motivated by a number of recent incidents of “serious deficiencies” among hospitals that had been found compliant with [...]

2020-02-27T06:00:36-05:00February 27, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services|

Verma Responds to Medicaid Block Grant Critics

Last week the Trump administration unveiled its Healthy Adult Opportunity program, a new, optional, already-controversial approach to structuring state Medicaid programs. Ever since, the program – essentially, Medicaid block grants – has been the subject of criticism from many public officials and health care stakeholders. Now, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma, who oversaw the development of Healthy Adult Opportunity, has responded to the program’s critics in an op-ed piece published in the Washington Post.  See her commentary “No, the Trump administration is not cutting Medicaid.”

2020-02-11T11:55:58-05:00February 11, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid|

Interview With Seema Verma

In late December, PBS broadcast an interview with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma.  Kaiser Health News has published a transcript of excerpts from that interview during which Verma discusses Medicaid – including enrollment, eligibility, services, and children – Medicare for all, administration attempts to reduce health care costs, protection for people with pre-existing conditions, and more.  Read those excerpts in the Kaiser Health News article “One-On-One With Trump’s Medicare And Medicaid Chief: Seema Verma."

Verma Addresses Medicaid Issues

Earlier this week, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma spoke at a conference of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. In addition to discussing a proposed regulation posted earlier in the day that would introduce changes in the regulation of state financing of their Medicaid programs, Verma also addressed: Medicaid demonstration programs Medicaid work requirements a shift toward value-based payments better coordination of care for the dually eligible (individuals serve by both Medicaid and Medicare) enrollment issues improvements in the efficiency of the federal Medicaid bureaucracy Read Verma’s complete remarks here.

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 [...]

CMS Shares Vision for Medicaid

Medicaid is about to undergo major changes, CMS administrator Seema Verma outlined in a news release yesterday and in a speech to state Medicaid directors. According to the news release, those changes include: re-establishing a state-federal partnership that Verma believes has become too much federal and not enough state giving states greater freedom to innovate offering new guidelines for how states can align their individual programs with federal Medicaid objectives new guidance on section 1115 waivers longer section 1115 waivers with simpler review processes CMS willingness to consider proposals to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries Medicaid and CHIP “scorecards” [...]

CMS Announces Drive to Reduce Paperwork

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is launching a new “Meaningful Measures” initiative that will seek to reduce the regulatory burden on health care providers. According to a CMS news release, Meaningful Measures …will involve only assessing those core issues that are most vital to providing high-quality care and improving patient outcomes.  The agency aims to focus on outcome-based measures going forward, as opposed to trying to micromanage processes.. In a speech at the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, CMS administrator Seema Verma explained that this project will include moving the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation [...]

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