Medicaid

Justice in Aging says that so-called Duals Special Needs Plans look-alikes will interfere with CMS’ policy initiatives to improve care for those eligible for Medicare and Medicaid if the look-alike plans are left unchecked, and the group is urging CMS to force plans with majority duals enrollment to meet D-SNP requirements -- but the group says plans, not beneficiaries, should be the target of regulatory changes.

The Trump administration told a federal appeals court Thursday (July 18) that states should be able to continue testing Medicaid work requirements even as the administration acknowledged problems in how Arkansas initially implemented its first-in-the-nation work requirement program.

The White House asked Democrats late Thursday (July 19) to include in a budget deal Senate Democratic drug-pricing policies that would save the government $115 billion, multiple sources say

The House Energy & Commerce Committee on Wednesday (July 17) unanimously approved legislation that would delay Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) cuts, reauthorize Medicaid funding to the territories with increased oversight of Puerto Rico’s funding, fund community health centers and other extenders for four years, and tackle surprise billing.

Senate Finance Committee Republicans asked HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday (July 17) to provide them with information about Medicaid spending and fraud control in Puerto Rico in light of the recent corruption scandal in the Puerto Rican government.

Nearly all the Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee asked ranking Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) to push for government price negotiation authority to be included in the committee’s drug-pricing package.

CMS on Thursday (July 11) proposed to rescind Medicaid fee-for-service access monitoring requirements and come up with a uniform way to analyze Medicaid access across managed care, fee-for-service and home and community-based waiver programs.

President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw a proposed rule to eliminate rebates in Medicare Part D and Medicaid managed care because of concerns the rule would raise premiums for Part D beneficiaries, an administration official told Inside Drug Pricing.

HHS is looking for 15 stakeholders to join a department-wide quality summit to put together a Health Quality Roadmap as required by President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on price transparency.