Medicaid

At a White House roundtable on Tuesday (Aug. 11), CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the agency continues to examine policies around audio-only telehealth and touted an upcoming regulation on using telehealth for physician supervision purposes.

The buy-American executive order that the president will sign Thursday (Aug. 6) aims to avoid raising drug prices by making it easier to build advanced U.S. manufacturing facilities that make drugs from start to finish, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said Thursday morning.

Missouri voters Tuesday voted 53% to 47% to expand Medicaid, becoming the sixth state to do so through a ballot initiative and coming a little over a month after Oklahoman narrowly agreed to an expansion.

Welcome to Inside Health Policy’s Election Checkup -- a weekly rundown of the latest health policy developments in the countdown to the November elections that will decide which party controls the White House and Congress, as well as key congressional committee posts. Top policy and campaign experts weigh in to focus on what’s important.

Presidential candidates from both parties this week raised the popular issues of drug prices and surprise billing, but the ongoing pandemic poses a wildcard on how they will play out among voters. President Donald Trump released four executive orders aimed at lowering drug prices and a report encouraging Congress to end surprise medical bills.

A coalition of public health plans in California is calling on Congress to strengthen Medicaid in the upcoming stimulus package by including provisions to allow for presumptive eligibility, increase the federal share of Medicaid spending and block two controversial rules.

Senate Republicans Wednesday (July 29) blocked Democratic Sens. Mark Warner (VA) and Doug Jones’(AL) attempt to pass by unanimous consent legislation that would provide new Medicaid expansion states 100% of federal match funding for the first three years, while Democrats stopped Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) amendment to maintain certain consumer protections should the Affordable Care Act be thrown out.

Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of CMS’ early data on Medicaid finds enrollment grew by 1.2 million, or 1.7%, since December, which includes 800,000 from March.

The American Hospital Association, the American Nurse Association and the American Medical Association on Wednesday (July 22) called on congressional leaders to replenish the provider relief fund with an additional $100 billion in the upcoming coronavirus stimulus package.

As the Senate negotiates the upcoming coronavirus stimulus package, providers, plans and beneficiary advocates are laying out what they want to see in the package, including a bump in the federal Medicaid match, additional state funding, and a focus on contact tracing.