Billy Wynne

Hearing Addresses Long-Term Care; Quality, Workforce; Antipsychotic Use Discussed The House Ways and Means (W&M) Committee convened a hearing on the costs of home and hospice care for the disabled and elderly and how Congress could address these issues, increase quality of care for patients, and reduce the burden for caretakers. Many members of the…

Parallel Price Transparency Rules Aim to Make Public Hospital and Insurer Negotiated Charges; Final Hospital Requirements Effective Jan. 1, 2020, Comments Sought on Insurer Proposal through Jan. 14 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the release of two regulations designed to implement directives in President Trump’s June Executive Order on “Improving Price…

Bulletin: Medicare-Medicaid Integration and Unified Appeals and Grievance Requirements for State Contracts with MA Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) for Contract Year 2021 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an informational bulletin designed to provide states with important information and reminders on how to comply with new provisions of the Bipartisan…

At Politico Event, Policymakers and Stakeholders Convene to Discuss Solutions to Kidney Care On November 13, 2019, Politico Live hosted a panelist-driven event on “fixing kidney care” in the United States. Moderated by Politico’s Dan Diamond and Rachael Roubein, the panel featured the following four leaders in kidney care reform: Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Co-chair…

Six Topics Affecting Mental Health, Substance Use, and Violence Prevention Identified as Needing More Research Today, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released its “Ninth Annual Report to Congress on High-Priority Evidence Gaps for Clinical Preventive Services.” The Task Force is responsible for making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services that help clinicians and…

Agency CMS Issues Proposed Rule to Increase Medicaid Fiscal Accountability; Comments due Jan. 11 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule (press release, fact sheet) on Medicaid Fiscal Accountability. The agency said the proposed rule is intended to strengthen the fiscal integrity of the Medicaid program and ensure that supplemental…

Implementation Update on the President’s Executive Order to Improve Kidney Care During remarks to the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Thursday, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar detailed the agency’s next steps on implementing its Executive Order (EO) on Advancing American Kidney Health. For reference, our July note on the roll…

Commissioners Discuss Vertical and Horizontal Provider Integration; 340B Analysis Set to Come January 2020 The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) convened a session to share research findings in response to a congressional request from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ). The request sought information regarding hospital-hospital consolidation, physician-hospital integration, and…

Agency Releases Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Data for the First Time The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released (press release, fact sheet) the Transformed Medicaid and CHIP Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data for the first time. As part of the agency’s MyHealthEData initiative, CMS is promoting the external use of the…

District of Columbia Receives “First-of-its-Kind” Approval for Behavioral Health-Focused Medicaid Demonstration The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a new, behavioral health-focused Medicaid demonstration for the District of Columbia (D.C.), aimed at improving outcomes for those diagnosed with diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) and serious emotional disturbance (SED). The agency also approved…