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Doctors Warn House GOP's Offset Plan Could Kill Changes Of SGR Bill

Physician groups on Friday (March 7) issued thinly veiled warnings that Congress' hard-fought legislation to reform the Medicare physician-pay formula could slip away if House Republicans more forward on a plan that emerged Thursday to pay for reforming physician pay by repealing Obamacare's individual mandate, an offset no one believes Democrats will accept.

CMS Sticks With Prohibition On Using Basic Health Trust Funds To Administer Program

CMS says the health reform law prohibits federal trust funds for a Basic Health Program from being spent on anything outside of lowering enrollees' premiums and cost-sharing and providing them additional benefits, so the agency must retain its prior stance that states cannot use Basic Health trust funds on program implementation and administrative costs, according to a final rule issued Friday (March 7).

CMS Eyes Limiting Mid-Year Provider Network Changes In Response To Narrow Networks

CMS is considering instituting restrictions on Medicare Advantage plans that move to narrow provider networks in the middle of a plan year -- a move that some beneficiary advocates back but others question because they say narrow networks are necessary to curb costs.

GOP Pounces On MedPAC Letter Against Opening Preferred-Pharmacy Networks

House Ways & Means Republicans pounced on a letter from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in opposition to CMS' proposal to open preferred-pharmacy networks to nonpreferred pharmacies, using MedPAC's concerns to bolster their case that the Part D proposed rule should be scrapped.

Expert Predicts, Due To New Fix, Most Small Businesses Unlikely To Shift To ACA-Compliant Plans

Most employers in the small group insurance market likely won't move any time soon to ACA-compliant plans now that HHS is giving insurers the option to renew non-compliant policies for another two years, a health policy expert with Avalere Health tells Inside Health Policy.

HHS Has Spent One-Third Of $1B ACA Fund For Exchanges, New Budget Docs Show

HHS since fiscal year 2010 has spent roughly $304 million of the $1 billion Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund that was established by the health law to help cover administrative expenses related to the ACA's implementation, according to new exchange spending details that were required by the omnibus appropriations legislation passed earlier this year.

CMS Not Tabulating How Many Previously Uninsured In Exchanges; McKinsey Sheds Light

Outgoing CMS insurance chief Gary Cohen told a gathering of insurance executives Thursday (March 6) that the agency is not collecting data that would quantify how many previously uninsured individuals are joining the health insurance exchanges -- coming the same day a new McKinsey & Company survey found that people who have been insured are signing up for exchange plans at much higher levels than those who had been without coverage.

Cohen Says Timing Of Departure From CMS Unrelated To Healthcare.gov Rollout

Outgoing Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) Director Gary Cohen told reporters Thursday (March 6) that he had always intended for his stint at CMS to be temporary and that his decision to leave at the end of the current open enrollment period is not related to the widely panned roll out of healthcare.gov.

President's HHS Budget Bumps Funding For MCM Under Project BioShield

The fiscal 2015 proposed HHS budget gives Project BioShield a funding bump, but levels for other medical countermeasure initiatives within FDA and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority remain flat.