PA Safety Net Admin, Author at Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Chatter About Medicaid Block Grants Grows

A week after a published report suggested that the Trump administration might be working on a plan to introduce Medicaid block grants, the Washington Post reports that those efforts are under way in earnest.

According to the Post,

A small group of people within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is working on a plan to allow states to ask permission for their federal Medicaid dollars to be provided in a single lump sum instead of the way they are currently awarded as a percentage of states’ total costs.

While many, including members of Congress, insist that the administration cannot move forward with such a proposal without legislation, others suggest that the administration may offer states the opportunity to participate in Medicaid block grants voluntarily, by seeking a federal waiver. What remains to be seen is whether the prospect of greater flexibility to shape their own Medicaid programs is sufficient to entice states to participate in an approach that almost certainly would result in less federal money for those programs.

Learn more about what the administration is considering and how policy-makers, industry leaders, and others are reacting to the prospect of a push toward Medicaid block grants from the Washington Post story “The Health 202: The Trump administration is working on Medicaid block grants?”

PA Safety Net Admin2019-01-25T06:00:23+00:00January 25th, 2019|Federal Medicaid issues|Comments Off

SNAP Comments on Proposed Federal Managed Care Reg

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has submitted formal comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in response to CMS’s proposed changes in federal Medicaid managed care regulations.

Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania logo SNAP’s letter addressed three aspects of the proposed regulation: payment rate ranges, directed Medicaid payments, and Medicaid pass-through payments. The overall theme underlying SNAP’s comments was that the proposed changes represent positive steps but could be taken further to provide additional flexibility for Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program to take stronger steps to ensure the ability of Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals to serve their communities.

SNAP expressed support for CMS’s restoration of the use of actuarial rate ranges in setting Medicaid managed care rates but urged CMS to make those rate ranges even broader or even eliminate them provided that negotiated rates still meet formal criteria for actuarial soundness.

SNAP endorsed CMS’s expanded parameters for the use of Medicaid directed payments through managed care but encouraged CMS to expand those parameters even further than it has proposed.

And SNAP called on CMS to restore the ability of states to use pass-through payments in Medicaid managed care programs, as they can do through Medicaid fee-for-service programs, so long as those payments remain actuarially sound.

Learn more about SNAP’s perspective by reading the association’s comment letter to CMS in response to the proposed Medicaid managed care regulation.

PA Safety Net Admin2019-01-18T17:52:53+00:00January 18th, 2019|Uncategorized|Comments Off

SNAP Comments on Proposed Federal Medicaid Managed Care Regulation (Letter)

In a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, SNAP responds to a proposed federal Medicaid managed care regulation by expressing support for its partial restoration of rate ranges in Medicaid managed care payments; urges CMS to restore states’ ability to make managed care pass-through payments to ensure access to Medicaid services; and expresses support for CMS’s expansion of the use of directed payments in Medicaid managed care. SNAP also urges CMS to expand even further the use of rate ranges and directed payments.

PA Safety Net Admin2020-09-01T18:11:02+00:00January 14th, 2019|Advocacy|Comments Off

Court Rejects 340B Cuts

A federal court has ruled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overstepped its authority in reducing Medicare payments for prescription drugs covered by the section 340B prescription drug discount program.

While the court conceded that CMS has the authority to address 340B payments, it found that CMS’s drastic payment cuts, introduced in FY 2018, “…fundamentally altered the statutory scheme established by Congress…” for determining 340B payment rates.

The court suggested that CMS either change its methodology for determining 340B payments to justify the specific cuts it proposes or raise its objections with Congress, which created the program and has the authority to change it.

According to documents submitted to the court by the parties that filed the suit, eligible hospitals have seen their 340B payments reduced $1.6 billion since the cuts began in FY 2018. The court asked the federal government and those who filed the suit to suggest remedies for compensating participating hospitals for their losses.

The ruling has major implications for the Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, most of which participate in the 340B program.

Learn more about the 340B litigation, the court’s ruling, and its impact in the New York Times story “Court Rejects Trump’s Cuts in Payments for Prescription Drugs.”

PA Safety Net Admin2019-01-11T06:00:43+00:00January 11th, 2019|Medicare, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

Medicaid MCOs Skimping on Care?

Medicaid MCOs may be skimping on care, according to a recent Kaiser Health News report.

According to Kaiser, for-profit companies that sub-contract with Medicaid managed care organizations to review requests for services often deny care to Medicaid patients to save money for the MCOs that employ them and to benefit themselves financially.

The Kaiser article presents examples of companies that have been identified engaging in such practices, explains how they go about their work, and outlines the dangers to Medicaid recipients posed by such practices.

Because they serve so many more Medicaid patients than the typical hospital, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, their patients, and the communities they serve can be greatly affected by such practices.

Learn more in the Kaiser Health News article “Coverage Denied: Medicaid Patients Suffer As Layers Of Private Companies Profit.”

PA Safety Net Admin2019-01-09T15:54:59+00:00January 9th, 2019|Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

Report Looks at Work Requirements

As a growing number of states consider implementing work requirements as a condition for Medicaid eligibility, the Urban Institute has released a report that describes work requirements in various government cash assistance, nutrition assistance, and housing assistance programs and considers the degree to which those requirements have achieved their policy objectives.
The report also describes the applications that eight states have submitted to the federal government seeking permission to introduce a work requirement in their Medicaid programs.
Go here to see the Urban Institute report Work Requirements in Social Safety Net Programs: A Status Report of Work Requirements in TANF, SNAP, Housing Assistance, and Medicaid.

PA Safety Net Admin2018-01-10T06:00:29+00:00January 10th, 2018|Federal Medicaid issues|Comments Off

New Medical Assistance Bulletin Addresses Hospital Uncompensated Care

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has issued a new Medical Assistance Bulletin titled “Hospital Responsibilities Related to the Uncompensated Care Program and Charity Care Plans.”
According to the document,

The purpose of this Medical Assistance (MA) Bulletin is to remind hospitals of the requirements for the Hospital Uncompensated Care Program (Program) and reinforce the responsibility of hospitals to actively engage patients when determining eligibility for the Program.

See the entire Bulletin here.

PA Safety Net Admin2018-01-08T06:00:47+00:00January 8th, 2018|Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania Medical Assistance|Comments Off

The Continued Need for Medicaid DSH

While the Affordable Care Act has greatly increased the number of Americans with health insurance and reduced the demand for uncompensated care from hospitals, many hospitals still see significant numbers of uninsured patients.
Some of those patients simply have not taken advantage of the health reform law’s creation of easier access to affordable insurance while others live in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs.
Hospitals that care for especially large numbers of such uninsured patients qualify for Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments, commonly referred to as Medicaid DSH. The purpose of these payments is to help these hospitals with the unreimbursed costs they incur caring for such patients.
The Affordable Care Act calls for reducing Medicaid DSH payments to hospitals. Many hospitals and hospital groups oppose this cut and are asking Congress to block its implementation. Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals benefit considerably from Medicaid DSH payments.
The Commonwealth Fund recently published a commentary calling for delaying scheduled Medicaid DSH cuts. Go here to see the article “Keep Harmful Cuts in Federal Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments at Bay.”

PA Safety Net Admin2017-12-27T06:00:23+00:00December 27th, 2017|Affordable Care Act, Federal Medicaid issues, Medicaid supplemental payments|Comments Off

Pennsylvania Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has published its latest Health Law News.
Included in this edition are articles about:

The January 1 introduction of Community HealthChoices, a mandatory program of managed long-term services and supports, in southwestern Pennsylvania
the January 1 implementation of the federal ordering, referring, or prescribing rule that requires that all such actions involving Pennsylvania Medicaid patients be undertaken by providers enrolled with the state to serve Medicaid patients
various Medicare issues

Find these stories here in the latest edition of Health Law News.

PA Safety Net Admin2017-12-26T06:00:24+00:00December 26th, 2017|Pennsylvania Medicaid, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Medicaid Directors Meet

The National Association of Medicaid Directors held its fall conference recently outside Washington, D.C.
This is an important event at which policy-makers and policy experts meet to discuss Medicaid programs, trends, challenges, and opportunities.
Many of the materials used during that conference are now publicly available, including video clips from speeches by CMS Administrator Seema Verma and others and presentations on a number of subjects, including:

Medicaid’s role in supporting community engagement and economic mobility
busting the silos of physical and behavioral health care
alternative payment models and addressing the social determinants of health
early intervention in behavioral health
the opioid epidemic
pediatric innovations in Medicaid

Go here for links to the speeches and presentations offered at the conference.

PA Safety Net Admin2017-12-21T06:00:05+00:00December 21st, 2017|Federal Medicaid issues|Comments Off

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