Health-Exchange-Alert

Health insurers are pressing the Trump administration to scrap the crux of its proposed negotiated price transparency rule and work with stakeholders and Congress on alternatives -- a request that has led to visceral reactions from HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma.

Indiana is asking CMS to let the state extend its Medicaid program, called the Healthy Indiana Plan, for an additional 10 years, to 2030, after closing the door on the possibility of using the agency’s newly unveiled guidance to block grant its program.

Senate Finance Democrats pushed HHS Secretary Alex Azar to present the administration’s Affordable Care Act replacement plan on Thursday (Feb. 13), but Azar said the high-profile litigation over the constitutionality of the health law is a long way from being finished and at this point an ACA replacement is a hypothetical situation.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said those alleging the agency’s proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation will cut billions of dollars from Medicaid are alarmists without credibility, and she tried to assure stakeholders in a blog post Wednesday that the rule is not intended to scale back Medicaid pay.

A senior policy advisor for FDA told Inside Health Policy the agency hopes its newly developed method for collecting and analyzing data on genetic alteration in animals intended for human consumption will allow the agency to eventually scale back its regulation of genetically modified animals.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the House Ways & Means Committee's surprise billing proposal, which relies heavily on mediation and arbitration, would save roughly $17.8 billion over the course of 10 years.

The Trump administration again proposed making it easier for states to extend Medicaid coverage for up to one year after a beneficiary with a history of substance use disorders has a baby, despite repeated calls by maternal health advocates to allow states to extend coverage for all postpartum beneficiaries.

President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget would cut nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid over 10 years, impose mandatory work requirements in the program and give CMS more leeway to recoup improper payments.

Industry stakeholders and large employers who recently celebrated the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s so-called Cadillac tax urge the Bipartisan Policy Center to rethink its proposal to limit the open-ended tax exclusion for employer-sponsored benefits.