A federal court in Maryland on Thursday (March 4) agreed with several cities that a number of policies finalized in the Trump administration’s 2019 exchange rule violate federal law, and vacated provisions related to network adequacy, standardized options, income verification and medical loss ratio.

State and local governments were set to receive $350 billion under the House-passed American Rescue Plan, but the updated version of the pandemic relief bill moving through the Senate would reduce the funding for local governments by $10 billion to pay for increased broadband access and split that relief into two funding pots released a year apart.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission generally supported a draft recommendation to reform Medicare Advantage benchmarks, as staff stood by their conviction that the current system pushed up MA costs compared to fee-for-service Medicare.

CMS is crafting an action plan aimed at better aligning quality measures across the agency, federal programs and private payers, Michelle Block Schreiber, director of the Quality Measurement & Value Based Incentives Group at CMS, said at the agency’s Quality Conference Wednesday (March 3).

Early data indicate that Quality Improvement Organization assistance to nursing homes led to a decline in COVID-19 cases in those homes as compared to homes that didn’t work with QIOs, a CMS staff member said at the CMS Quality Conference Wednesday (March 3).

Every member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission said Friday (March 5) they support recommendations that Medicare Part B cover all vaccines, without cost sharing for preventive vaccines, and that Medicare pay doctors 103% of wholesale acquisition cost to administer preventive vaccines, although they have yet to vote on the proposals.

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission staff found that rural beneficiaries have a harder time accessing specialty care than do urban beneficiaries, though the two groups reported similar satisfaction with overall care, and that a decline in inpatient admissions preceded rural hospital closures.

The National Kidney Foundation this week cheered introduction of bipartisan legislation that aims to protect living organ donors by banning life and long-term insurers from denying them coverage.