RFK Jr. Nominated By Trump To Be HHS Secretary
In the biggest news of the day, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Democratic supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. Kennedy is known to be a vaccine skeptic and someone who will focus on food safety, fluoride, and chronic disease. He is also known to be extremely critical of a number of the regulatory agencies under HHS, especially the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the food and drug industries.
Many are already characterizing the nomination as one of the toughest battles along with Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz.
Additional articles: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/rfk-jr-robert-f-kennedy-hhs-donald-trump-vaccines-covid-19-pandemic and https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/trump-nominates-rfk-jr-to-lead-hhs/733009/ and https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/112913 and https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/trump-picks-rfk-jr-as-hhs-secretary-7-things-to-know.html and https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4991324-trump-nominates-kennedy-health-department/ and https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4991964-rfk-jr-vows-to-be-honest-public-servant-as-hhs-chief/ and https://insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/rfk-jr-trump-s-choice-lead-hhs-sets-stage-health-information-war and https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-rfk-maha-federal-health-agencies-takeover/ and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/cdc-director-mandy-cohen-rfk-jr-robert-f-kennedy-vaccines-donald-trump
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#hhs #rfkjr #trump #healthcare
CMS Says It Will Deprioritize Star Call Center Measures
A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) executive intimated that the agency would further deprioritize the controversial call center measures in the Star program. I say intimated because the executive referred to the already in place reduction of the two measures’ weights from 4x to 2x. The executive did not exactly say what future changes would be. For two years now, multiple plans have sued CMS over star ratings, in many cases surrounding call center metrics.
Additional article: https://www.beckerspayer.com/policy-updates/cms-official-call-centers-will-be-less-important-in-future-medicare-advantage-star-ratings.html
#cms #stars #medicareadvantage #partd
https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/medicare-advantage-star-ratings-call-center-metric-tweak/732949
Cardinal Health Growing Through Horizontal And Vertical Integration
Major drug distributor and medical supply entity Cardinal is quietly growing via vertical integration. Its latest acquisitions would be acquiring a 71% stake in gastroenterology practice management group GI Alliance and all of Advanced Diabetes Supply Group, a supplier for diabetes care products. Together, the cost is $3.9 billion. Many of these entities in the drug supply channel market are acquiring provider entities that purchase drugs and supplies. It is part of the opaqueness of the drug supply channel that drives costs up.
#transparency #drugchannel #drugpricing
When Finance Chair Flips, Expect Changes
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, will become the chairman of Senate Finance, one of the healthcare committees of cognizance, with Ron Wyden, D-OR, taking on role of Ranking Member. They have partnered on some reforms, including payment and pharmacy benefit manager reform. But with the change expect Crapo to be much more activist on GOP policies regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid. It is unclear where he stands on extending Exchange premium subsidy enhancements. He has backed the possibility of reforms to the ACA that might be short of repeal and replace. His positions on Medicaid are not real clear. He likely, though, will take some lead from Trump on proposals.
With the Senate changing majorities as well as major retirements in both chambers, healthcare leadership is changing markedly.
Additional article: https://rollcall.com/2024/11/13/new-congress-brings-churn-in-health-policy-leadership/
(Some articles may require a subscription.)
#medicaid #aca #obamacare #exchanges
New Study Shows Waste Related To Back Surgeries
In both Medicare and Medicare Advantage (MA), the Lown Institute found about $2 billion in unnecessary back surgeries for more than 200,000 patients over a three-year period. Lown characterized the procedures as low value and could also have major safety impacts post-surgery. The study seems to point to certain hospitals, and thereby providers, who are conducting many of these surgeries. There also seem to be regional differences too.
The new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule that requires MA to follow traditional Medicare rules when prior authorizing services will only make these issues worse.
Additional article: https://www.axios.com/2024/11/14/medicare-spending-unneeded-back-surgeries
#fwa #medicare #medicareadvantage
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/112902
Biden Administration Approves Enhanced Medicaid Continuous Eligibility In Five States
In a parting shot, the Biden administration approved five section 1115 demonstration amendments that will allow five states to provide additional years of continuous eligibility for children beyond the minimum 12 months required by law. The waivers also provide continuous eligibility to individuals leaving incarceration in two of the states. The Trump administration is expected to contract not expand such programs.
#cms #medicaid #coverage
— Marc S. Ryan
