sanders Archives - The Healthcare Labyrinth

January 24, 2024

January 24, 2024 No Comments

Record Enrollment In Exchanges Nationwide The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced something to celebrate. Driven in part by Medicaid redetermination enrollment losses and enhanced premium subsidies, state and federal exchange enrollment reached a projected 21.3 million for 2024. An amazing achievement. Over 5 million new enrollees joined over 16 million existing members. Nearly 4.2 million people with incomes of less than 250% of the federal poverty level signed up for 2024 coverage. They receive both premium subsidies and cost-sharing reductions. About 15% of those enrollment previously had Medicaid. That translates to a little over 3 million – a small amount of those who lost Medicaid coverage. Over 16 million are in the federal Exchange and about 5 million in various state Exchanges. CMS press release here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/historic-213-million-people-choose-aca-marketplace-coverage . CMS Snapshot here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/marketplace-2024-open-enrollment-period-report-final-national-snapshot . HHS press release here: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/01/24/historic-21-million-people-choose-aca-marketplace-coverage.html Kaiser

January 23, 2024

January 23, 2024 No Comments

Rural Hospitals In Distress A good measure of the distress rural hospitals: most no longer deliver babies. Over half of the country’s rural hospitals aren’t offering labor and delivery services and more could end such services. Some would argue that the rural hospitals’ plight could be solved by more money for hospitals overall. The truth is the abominable hospital price system we have in this country along with the gross inefficiency of most hospitals drains overall healthcare resources and means we do not have enough to respond to true crises, such as those in rural communities. #ruralhealthcare #hospitals Link to Article Good Summary Of New Interoperability Rule’s Impact On Health Plans Modern Healthcare has a good article summarizing the provisions and impacts of the new interoperability rule. Among the mandates are a swifter turnaround time for medical service authorizations in 2026 and the new FHIR electronic prior authorization process in

January 22, 2024

January 22, 2024 No Comments

Elevance Health All In On AI Elevance Health CEO Gail Boudreaux gave a keynote speech that shows the second-largest insurer will be all in on AI. She wants her company to use the technology to make healthcare more proactive, predictive and personalized. She wants AI to help people navigate the system and simplify it. #elevancehealth #ai #digitalhealth Link to Article Physicians Want Rollback Of Medicare Cut As Well As New System Not only do physicians want both a rollback of their payment cut, but also a brand new way of paying them in the Medicare traditional system. They are not wrong. Each of the payment formulas has always been controversial and has led to an inability to calculate payments and last-minute rescues by lawmakers. (Article may require a subscription.) #medicare #physicians #providers #payments Link to Article Canada Ramping Up To Stop U.S. Importation Despite visits by U.S. officials, Canada seems intent on

January 19, 2024

January 19, 2024 No Comments

Weight Loss Drugs Take Nation By Storm Ozempic and other new drugs are all the rage for weight loss. These new drugs have both great promise and the potential to be abused and drive up healthcare costs phenomenally. See some of the trends here. (Article may require a subscription.) #weightlossdrugs #healthcare Link to Article Behavioral Health Pilot Announced By CMS The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a new behavioral health pilot for traditional Medicare and Medicaid. Physical and mental healthcare providers will form care teams with community organizations to coordinate care for the mentally ill and substance abusers. (Article may require a subscription.) #behavioralhealth #medicare #medicaid Link to Article House Budget Committee Passes Fiscal Commission Bill Three Democrats and all Republicans came together to pass a fiscal commission bill in the House Budget Committee. Such a commission would make recommendations on major fiscal issues, including Medicare. Congress would

January 18, 2024

January 18, 2024 No Comments

Disappointing Medicare Advantage Enrollment Numbers Huge disappointment for some during the Medicare Advantage enrollment season. My quick math says that overall MA numbers increased a strong 8.7% from January 2023 to January 2024. That is up from a year ago, which was a little over 6%. But a number of plans did not fare well during the recent enrollment campaign. Aetna shined. While United and Humana grew, it was a much lower rates than before. Centene took a big hit. I will have my usual annual blog looking at all the data on Monday. Stay tuned. Additional article here: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/humana-earnings-outlook-cut-high-medical-costs/704865/ (Some articles may require a subscription.) #medicareadvantage #healthplans #enrollment Link to Article Government Shutdown Averted Until Early March Over objections of the right flank in the House, Congress passed a new continuing resolution (CR) to keep government open until early March. New House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, previously said he

January 17, 2024

January 17, 2024 No Comments

CMS Finalizes Interoperability And Prior Authorization Rule The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a sweeping interoperability rule today that also sets much stricter timelines for medical service prior authorizations. The rule was published some time ago and garnered a great deal of comments. The rule takes effect in January 2026 and requires 7 day standard and 72 hour expedited prior authorization turnaround times (federal Exchange plans excepted). Plans now have until 2027 to have APIs to allow providers to submit authorizations electronically. A national format exists for retail prescription drugs, but not a consistent one for medical service requests yet. The final specifications for medical services will tie to the Davinci Project, which will use the new FHIR standard. But plans will be able to use X12 formats as well. The rule applies to Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicaid, children’s coverage, and the federal Exchanges. The finalization of

January 16, 2024

January 16, 2024 No Comments

Congressional Leaders Agree on Extension of Funding The four congressional leaders announced a deal to extend government funding to March 8 to avoid a government shutdown. This is a concession by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, who originally said he would not extend government by a short-term continuing resolution (CR). A number of items are left out of the funding package. Conservatives in the House GOP caucus are not happy with Speaker Johnson’s (one of their own) endorsement of the extension. Additional articles here: https://insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/short-term-cr-carries-extenders-through-march-8 and https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4410728-congress-shutdown-conservative-anger/ Additional article on status of healthcare bills, including hospitals’ opposition to site-neutral payments that is in a passed bill that would forestall disproportionate share hospital(DSH) funding cuts: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/congress-spending-deal-hospitals-dsh-medicare-site-neutral (Some articles may require a subscription.) #governmentshutdown #crs Link to Article More Fallout From MedPAC Report On Medicare Advantage The fallout from the MedPAC meeting continues. A leading member has argued that the analysis by

January 15, 2024

January 15, 2024 No Comments

Good Articles On Takeaways From JPM Healthcare Conference Two good articles summarizing some major trends and topics at the JPM healthcare conference. Highlights include: Additional article here: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/finance/jpm-2024-takeaways-commonspirit-mayo-clinic-centene-cvs-cigna-teladoc (Some articles may require a subscription.) #healthplans #providers #hospitals #stars #pbms Link to Article AI Can Help Drive Social Determinant Information And Extraction Stories on the ability for generative AI to identify social determinants of health (SDOH) data in notes is a key development. The study indicates that extraction from clinical notes in tuned models show success in insights into housing, employment status, etc. Language models were able to identify about 94% of cases where SDOH barriers existed compared with 2% using diagnostic codes. We know that social determinants may be a greater predictor of health outcomes than underlying disease status. This will be key to driving outcomes in the future. Additional article here: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/digital-health/generative-ai-social-determinants-of-health-mass-general-brigham (Some articles may require a subscription.) #sdoh

January 12, 2024

January 12, 2024 No Comments

What Would A Nikki Haley Healthcare Agenda Look Like? The Republican debates continue with Donald Trump bowing out and Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley taking center stage. A recent CNN debate saw the two sparring, sometimes on healthcare issues. Both Haley and DeSantis declared that they would like to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a block grant. It is a horrible idea. With Chris Christie’s departure from the race and Haley rising in the polls, Kaiser Health News (KHN) did a feature on what a Haley administration’s healthcare agenda may look like. Additional article on Haley’s views on entitlement reform here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/05/politics/nikki-haley-social-security-medicare-reform/index.html #gopprimary #haley #desantis #trump #healthcare #aca #obamacare Link to Article Fight (Verbal Anyway) Breaks Out at MedPAC Meeting A verbal clash broke out at a MedPAC meeting, with one member reasonably arguing that MedPAC is not truly as non-partisan as it says it is. I generally

January 11, 2024

January 11, 2024 No Comments

Dysfunction Junction Update: Will Government Shutdown? Faced with an upheaval by the rightists (his very own!) in the House GOP caucus and upended procedural votes, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, met with the Freedom Caucus members to discuss a possible alternative spending bill. This came as a surprise to other leaders. But Johnson could face the same purge that former Speaker McCarthy saw when he tried to do the right thing and comprise to keep government operating. While no one has explicitly said they would call a vote to vacate the speakership, the idea has again been put out there by prominent members of the right-wing fire-setting brigade. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, has begun drafting a continuing resolution (CR) that extends government while the agreed-upon deal is worked on. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, R-KY, has said this is needed. Johnson may be softening, but previously ruled out

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