Hike Proposed for Medicare Payments in 2019
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed a 1.84 percent increase in 2019 Medicare payments to health insurers that manage Medicare Advantage insurance plans for more than 20 million elderly and disabled people.
HHS Proposed Significant Cuts to Medicare Payments for 340B Drugs
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed 2018 updates to the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system to decrease Medicare Part B payments to hospitals for 340B drugs by almost 30 percent.
Senate Passes CHRONIC Care Act of 2017
The U.S. Senate passed the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic(CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017, which aims to improve care for seniors with chronic conditions.
Congress Passes Bills Extending CHIP Funding
The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee passed bills to extend for five years the federal funding forChildren’s Health Insurance Program.
New Rules Narrow ACA’ s Contraception Mandate
New rules issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services give employers more leeway to withhold birth control coverage on religious grounds.
NIH Grants $9 Million to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for SCID Research
The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases division has awarded nearly $9 million to researchers from Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Boston Children’s Hospital to study the lowest dose of chemotherapy needed for babies with severe combined immunodeficiency(SCID) undergoing bone marrow transplant, the standard treatment for SCID.
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Faith-Based Hospitals’ Exemption from ERISA
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that faith-based hospitals’ pension plans qualify for the “church plan” exemption from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
More Small Practices Exempt from MACRA Under New Draft Rule
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid would exempt physician practices with less than $90,000 in Medicare revenue or fewer than 200 unique Medicare patients per year from complying with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015.
Report Shows Hospital-Acquired Conditions Continue to Decline
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released a preliminary update to the National Scorecard on Rates ofHospital-Acquired Conditions that show a 21 percent reduction in hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2015.
NIH Awards Grant to Study the Connection Between Autism and Autoimmunity During Pregnancy
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $3 million grant to Feinstein Institute for Medical Research scientists to study the relationship between a mother’s autoimmunity during pregnancy and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in her child.