CMS says about 250 Medicare providers dropped out of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced demonstration, and, after the March 1 deadline to withdraw without facing any financial risk, about 1,300 providers remain as part of about 1,100 participating entities– which the agency called robust participation.

A new Urban Institute report out Thursday (March 21) suggests policymakers consider capping provider rates at Medicare levels or introducing a public plan option in exchange rating areas that continue to struggle with competition.

The American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution are pushing lawmakers to expand site-neutral pay to on-campus hospital outpatient departments, a call that was mirrored in the president’s fiscal 2020 budget.

A prominent consumer advocacy group and an FDA advisory committee chair are calling for FDA drug center chef Janet Woodcock to step down from her post in order to clear a path for the agency to revamp its regulation of opioids and implement recommendations made in 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Durable medical equipment lobbyists took their fight against adding ventilators to the competitive bidding program to the White House Domestic Policy Council after vowing to pressure the administration and Congress to change the policy.

A prominent consumer advocacy group and an FDA advisory committee chair filed a citizen petition on Thursday (March 21) demanding FDA slap an immediate moratorium on the approval of new opioids until it revamps its regulation and review of new opioids as recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2017.

Stakeholders representing both industry and consumers called for a re-think of FDA’s generally-recognized-as-safe (GRAS) process, where companies can put a new ingredient in food without agency review.

Advocates for Medicaid beneficiaries filed a third lawsuit Wednesday (March 20) challenging the Trump administration’s continued approval of Medicaid work requirements.