Medicaid

Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) on Wednesday (Oct. 23) castigated CMS Administrator Seema Verma on the Trump administration’s support of Medicaid work requirements as Verma, under Kennedy’s questioning, was unable to cite any studies backing the policy.

Arizona is suspending its planned Medicaid work requirements due to legal uncertainty caused by several court rulings that have blocked other states from implementing the policy.

The Trump administration is focusing on protecting and improving job-based coverage, Medicare and Medicaid that covers the vast majority of Americans and has no plans to draft an Affordable Care Act replacement until there’s a willing Congress or the court makes a final decision, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said during the TIME 100 Health Summit on Thursday (Oct16).

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) plans to release a lengthy, wide-ranging health policy proposal next Tuesday (Oct. 22) that House members can point to as a GOP health plan during the 2020 campaign.

Federal appellate judges grilled a lawyer for the Trump administration on Friday (Oct. 11) over the administration’s policy allowing states to add work requirements to their Medicaid programs, with all the members of a three-judge panel -- two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee -- expressing skepticism that work requirements can promote the goals of Medicaid.

HHS on Wednesday (Oct. 9) released long-awaited proposals to change the physician-self referral and anti-kickback statute regulations aimed at easing providers’ participation in value-based pay models, including new, permanent exceptions to the Stark Law for value-based pay arrangements within and outside Medicare and a new safe harbor under the anti-kickback statute for certain incentives beneficiaries can access through CMS demonstrations.

Amy Bassano, formerly the deputy director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, has been named acting director of the innovation center after the departure of former director Adam Boehler, who was confirmed by the Senate on Sept. 26 to lead the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

CMS announced Thursday (Oct. 3) that it is exploring releasing program data on social determinants of health from its Accountable Health Communities model and asked stakeholders what type of data from the model would be the most useful.

More than 800,000 new beneficiaries would enroll in Medicaid within five years if Florida adopted Medicaid expansion, and the state’s costs would largely be offset by projected savings, according to a new report from Leavitt Partners.