Medicare

The White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing a regulatory proposal to replace an interim final rule issued in 2016 that required dialysis firms inform commercial insurers when a patient’s premium would be covered by a third-party payer, including non-profit charities like the American Kidney Fund (AKF), but was later shot down in the courts.

Providers asked for more information on how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) interacts with proposed exceptions to information blocking in comments submitted to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) on a proposed interoperability rule released in February.

The Biosimilars Forum is scheduled to meet with White House budget officials June 10 to discuss policies that the trade group says would reduce Medicare spending by boosting the use of biosimilars, according to the Office of Management and Budget website.

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday (June 5) began its review of HHS’ proposal to revise anti-kickback statute safe harbors and beneficiary inducement penalties.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) plans to work on a rural health package and changes to the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments formula separately, according to the lawmaker’s office, though earlier this year he had discussed the possibility of putting the two together.

Members of the House Energy & Commerce health subcommittee agreed that extending funding for community health centers, the National Health Services Corps, and the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program for more than two years is a priority, but some House Republicans at a hearing on Tuesday (June 4) expressed concern about paying for the programs.

The House Ways & Means Committee will hold a hearing on Medicare for All and other coverage expansion options on June 12, making it the first health care committee of jurisdiction to hold a hearing on the progressive health policy priority and the third time a House committee has examined single player in the past month.

House Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) on Tuesday (June 4) said Congress should be anxious about the fate of rural hospitals, after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raised concerns with rural hospitals and their closures.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) plans to introduce next week a package of five drug pricing bills that includes measures to help insurers finance expensive drugs, reward insurers that encourage biosimilar adoption, discourage price concessions that pharmacies call unfair, pay pharmacists for managing complicated regimens and stop authorized generics from lowering Medicaid drug rebates.