Medicaid

CMS plans to issue this spring several overdue Medicaid guidance documents meant to help states tackle the nation’s drug overdose crisis, an agency official told lawmakers Tuesday (March 3) in response to questions triggered by an Inside Health Policy investigation of the Trump administration’s lagging implementation of a major opioid law.

Congress’ Medicaid advisers are considering recommending that states be required to align Medicare Savings Program eligibility rules on income, household size and asset tests with the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy to reduce burden and boost enrollment.

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission signaled Thursday (Feb. 27) that it is warming up to the idea of recommending that Congress pass a bill extending Medicaid for up to one year for beneficiaries who just had a baby.

After criticizing stakeholders in recent weeks for not getting onboard HHS’ upcoming interoperability rules, HHS Secretary Alex Azar adopted a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday (Feb. 26), telling a House panel he has engaged directly with health IT company Epic about its issues with the regulation and hopes to be “reflective of those concerns” as much as the department can.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and CMS released a wide-ranging list of proposals to reduce the burdens that health information technology such as electronic health records pose to physicians and other frontline providers -- including recommendations to better automate prior authorization.

Federal immigration officials on Monday (Feb. 24) began enforcing new rules that will deny green cards and some visas to immigrants who are in poor health or deemed likely to rely on Medicaid.

More Americans than ever approve of the Affordable Care Act as it nears its 10-year anniversary, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll out Friday (Feb. 21), the same day the Supreme Court met behind closed doors to discuss whether to review the high-profile GOP suit to strike the law.

CMS expects to announce in 2020 new policies to cut down on regional variation in penalties nursing homes face when they don’t meet certain Medicare and Medicaid requirements, and while nursing homes say such a move is needed, one beneficiary advocate says it could lead to CMS lowering the fines that providers face when they don’t provide quality care.

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter to President Donald Trump Friday (Feb. 14) urging him to direct the Department of Justice to drop its support of the high-profile Texas v. United States case challenging the Affordable Care Act after he failed to offer up alternative policies protecting people with preexisting conditions in his $4.8 trillion budget released Feb. 10.