Medicaid

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 1.4 million more people went uninsured in 2018 compared to 2016 and most of the drop came from unsubsidized individuals in the individual market.

CMS reversed course and, along with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, will give stakeholders an additional 30 days to comment on proposed interoperability rules the agencies released in February, pushing the comment deadline back to June 3.

Kentucky’s Cabinet of Health and Family Services touted an independent evaluator’s plan to use a randomized control population to evaluate the state’s controversial work requirements program, but the evaluation’s approval is now on hold as CMS appeals a pair of judicial decisions that blocked Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky.

A provision in the Trump administration’s point-of-sale rebate proposal questioning whether formulary placement-related rebates are protected by the anti-kickback statute generated strong reactions from the generic drug and pharmacy benefit manager lobbies, which are at odds on the issue.

Federal Medicaid advisers expressed general support for CMS’ goal to encourage better sharing of electronic health records through its recent proposed rule on interoperability, but they declined Friday (April 12) to weigh in with any formal comments on the proposed rule, even as a few commissioners worried that the rule’s timeline for implementing new data-access requirements is too aggressive.

Federal Medicaid advisers voted Thursday (April 11) to recommend that Congress change the definition of the so-called Medicaid shortfall in order to re-impose stricter limits on the amount of supplemental payments that disproportionate-share hospitals can receive.

CMS on Wednesday (April 10) appealed a pair of judicial decisions that blocked Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) on Tuesday (April 9) signed a bill to implement the state’s voter-approved Medicaid expansion but expressed concerns about a controversial provision that seeks to add work requirements to people in the expansion population.

Lawmakers in Maryland passed a scaled-back bill late Monday (April 8) that would create a board to review the affordability of prescription drugs, and potentially set ceilings for government payment of certain high-cost drugs.