Health-Exchange-Alert

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 discretionary budget preview, released Friday (April 9), builds off health priorities in the recently enacted American Rescue Plan and proposed American Jobs Plan by calling for additional funding for home- and community-based services, tackling the opioid crisis, rural health and more.

The Department of Labor on Wednesday (April 7) affirmed that unemployed workers can enroll in exchange plans once the American Rescue Plan’s temporary full federal subsidies for those on COBRA end in September.

CMS proposes to increase inpatient rehabilitation facilities' fiscal year 2022 pay by 1.8%, or $160 million, relative to last year's payments, and to advance the Biden administration’s focus on health equity.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday (April 7) said more than 528,000 Americans have enrolled in Affordable Care Act coverage in the 36 states that use healthcare.gov since the new special enrollment period (SEP) kicked off Feb. 15, including 322,000 from March 1 through March 31.

The Democratic leaders of congressional health care committees are asking HHS to make sure consumers that receive the six months of fully subsidized COBRA coverage available under the American Rescue Plan can enroll in an Affordable Care Act plan once the COBRA benefits end.

The White House is expected to roll out the health care priorities for its two-part infrastructure package sometime this Spring, and the health piece potentially could move separately now that the Senate parliamentarian has agreed Democrats have another shot passing their priorities through a simple majority.

The Supreme Court temporarily suspended its review, pending another order to come, of the Medicaid work requirements that former President Donald Trump’s CMS approved for Arkansas and New Hampshire, the high court announced Monday (April 5).

Seven insurance commissioners running state-level reinsurance programs under 1332 waivers are asking CMS and Treasury to recalculate their federal pass-through dollars to account for the larger enrollment expected due the more generous Affordable Care Act credits in the American Rescue Plan.

President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan would make the Money Follows the Person program permanent to expand access to home- and community-based care, an administration official told Inside Health Policy Wednesday (March 31) morning.