Introduction With the first quarter of the new year coming to a close, we are taking this opportunity to do a national review of major state health policy activity in 2019. Nineteen new governors were sworn into office in January, ...
Introduction While 2019 started slowly under the Federal shutdown, its pace of action has significantly quickened. We bring you a range of health policy updates in this edition of Health Policy News. With the comment period closed for the annual ...
This month’s edition of Health Policy News highlights recent developments related to the Medicaid program. At the Federal level, we provide a summary of the recently published Proposed Rule on Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care, as well as an overview ...
Introduction This month’s edition of Health Policy News focuses on recent developments relative to drug policy, which has been an ever-growing focus at the State and Federal level. We continue our coverage of efforts relative to drug cost control with ...
Introduction In this month’s edition of Health Policy News, we delve into two of last month’s breaking Federal litigation updates: the decisions issued in cases regarding the Association Health Plan Final Rule and the use and operationalization of Medicaid work requirements. As both decisions reverse course on recent health policy developments, we analyze their likely ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released final annual Exchange guidance for 2020 on April 18, 2019, via the Final Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2020 (NBPP) and the 2020 Letter to Issuers in the Federally-facilitated Exchanges (Letter) as well as ancillary guidance. CMS’s stated goals for this year’s guidance are: ...
February 28-March 1, 2019, marked the 35th annual Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) Issues and Research Conference. The theme of this year’s event, “Breaking Down Barriers to Improve Injured Workers’ Outcomes,” signified two core ideas that were evident in each session. The first was that workers compensation can no longer operate in a silo. As ...
On March 27, 2019, Judge James Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued rulings on back-to-back cases addressing work requirement eligibility criteria included in Section 1115 waiver applications submitted by the states of Arkansas and Kentucky. Judge Boasberg again ruled against the implementation of a Medicaid work requirement in Kentucky, while ...
On March 28, 2019, Judge John D. Bates of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling invalidating major provisions of last summer’s final rule on Association Health Plans (AHPs). The regulations—which were released by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on June 19, 2018—established additional and more flexible criteria under ...
The new year brought changes to state leadership across the nation, with 19 governors newly entering the corner office—seven of whom took over from an administration on the other end of the political spectrum. This refresh has brought a surge of new ideas and energy in the realm of state health policy. Below, we highlight …
Last week, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) held its annual health policy conference (#AHIPPOLICY) in Washington DC, with top industry leaders, regulators and policy makers convened to provide diverse voices and perspectives on today’s most urgent health care issues. The conference themes were familiar and front-of-mind topics: tackling the opioid epidemic, rising prescription drug costs, data ...
As states and the federal government grapple with how best to address the issue of rising prescription drug costs, various models have emerged at the federal level that are similar to efforts underway at the State level. The Administration has called upon states to create innovative approaches to state Medicaid programs, particularly by examining value-based ...
Concern about out-of-pocket costs associated with air ambulance transport has been growing for some time. Groups such as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) have advocated for state flexibility to regulate the billing practices of the industry. A small but meaningful step forward came last fall with the passage of a legislative requirement that ...
On February 7, 2019, the Health Policy News team hosted a webinar highlighting the proposed changes outlined in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) long-awaited annual Exchange guidance (proposed Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2020 and the 2020 Draft Letter to Issuers in the Federally-facilitated Exchanges) released on January 17, 2019. ...
