Congress

HHS is pushing Congress to consider more site-neutral pay policies in Medicare, repeal the Affordable Care Act’s limit on physician-owned hospitals, relax telehealth restrictions and give Medicare beneficiaries more access to health savings accounts, as part of a new Trump administration report on ways to increase health care choice and competition.

The Trump administration released a series of health policy recommendations Monday (Dec. 3) that officials say would reduce barriers to competition in the individual and other markets, including loosening network adequacy restrictions, expanding access to health savings accounts, eliminating the employer mandate and altering the Affordable Care Act’s non-discrimination provisions.

CMS, worried about potential nursing home staff inadequacies after looking at payroll-based staffing data, will send state survey agencies a list of nursing homes with reduced staffing so surveyors can follow up.

Consumer advocacy group Families USA Thursday (Nov. 30) launched a new National Center for Coverage Innovation (NCCI) with a “two-track” strategy of developing and supporting near-term, pragmatic health insurance reforms, while also laying the groundwork for larger-scale federal changes.

House Speaker-nominee Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) welcomed a Democratic-led caucus with a health care mandate, proclaiming the party’s campaign focus on protecting the Affordable Care Act helped Democrats secure the chamber. Pelosi, who faces a formal vote to be speaker in January, vowed the House would spend the next two years continuing that focus while combatting the Trump administration’s past two years of action to unravel parts of the ACA.

The insurance industry is floating a dozen policy recommendations designed to improve affordability in the individual market, and among the suggestions is that Congress equalize the tax treatment of premiums by allowing unsubsidized consumers to deduct their costs from income.

House and Senate Democratic leaders on health committees are calling for the Trump administration to withdraw its new guidance changing the purpose of 1332 waivers, arguing the guidance is inconsistent with congressional intent and could reduce patients’ access to care, especially for those with preexisting conditions, and increase health care costs by expanding the use of short-term plans.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is returning to chair the Finance Committee after a hiatus as Judiciary chair, and the move gives advocates for lower drug prices an ally on the committee with jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid that they do not have in the current Finance Chair Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who is retiring.

Potential incoming Energy & Commerce health subcommittee chair Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wants to hold hearings before developing her prescription drug policy priorities, she told Inside Health Policy on Tuesday (Nov. 13).