Medicare

Lee Fleisher, CMS chief medical officer and director of its Center for Clinical Standards & Quality, told insurers Tuesday (March 9) that peer-to-peer outreach is crucial for convincing reluctant people to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

CMS Chief Medical Officer Lee Fleisher weighed the benefits -- and drawbacks -- of telehealth Tuesday (March 9) at the America’s Health Insurance Plans conference as he and Danielle Lloyd, AHIP’s senior vice president of private market innovations and quality initiatives for clinical affairs, discussed the quality action plan that is in the works at CMS.

A senior Democratic aide says the House plans to take up an extension of the Medicare sequester moratorium in the next few weeks, after providers unsuccessfully pushed for the extension to be part of the American Rescue Plan.

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission members supported draft recommendations for a new value incentive program to reward skilled nursing facilities for good performance, and they said their lingering concerns about rewarding low-performing homes that serve high proportions of dually eligible beneficiaries could be tackled in the future through upfront payments and public reporting of nursing home performance scores.

House lawmakers are trying to balance their interest in continuing telehealth expansion beyond the pandemic with concerns such services could be overused or used improperly, coming as Department of Justice officials say stopping telehealth false claims is a priority.

Early data indicate that Quality Improvement Organization assistance to nursing homes led to a decline in COVID-19 cases in those homes as compared to homes that didn’t work with QIOs, a CMS staff member said at the CMS Quality Conference Wednesday (March 3).

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission staff found that rural beneficiaries have a harder time accessing specialty care than do urban beneficiaries, though the two groups reported similar satisfaction with overall care, and that a decline in inpatient admissions preceded rural hospital closures.

Private online broker eHealth has formed a new bipartisan advisory committee of public policy experts that will inform the company, the public and policymakers on best practices for improving health care.

Insurance plans assert the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission unfairly compared Medicare Advantage and traditional fee-for-service Medicare in a September presentation that said MA plans spend more than traditional Medicare, but MedPAC says it stands by its calculations.