Surprise Billing Legislation Hits Roadblocks, Leaders Look at September for Votes Due to division within both chambers of Congress, the surprise billing legislation that has passed the relevant Committees will not be voted on prior to the August recess. The divisions are primarily between providers, who...
Growing Provider Opposition Results in Major Changes to Surprise Billing Legislation The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved several amendments to legislation to ban surprise medical bills in attempt to make the bill more friendly to providers. The approved bill, the No Surprises Act (H.R. 2328), prohibits balance...
House Subcommittee OKs Surprise Billing Package Favoring Insurers, Approves DSH Cut Delay The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee voted in favor of a controversial surprise billing bill that favors insurers over providers. The panel also approved several bills that would extend various Medicare and Medicaid...
HHS OIG Adds Fuel To 340B Fire The HHS' Office of Inspector General found in a new report out last week that tens of millions of dollars in rebates could have been generated had manufacturers and sponsors agreed that eligible prescriptions filled at 340B contract pharmacies would...
Senate Committee Passes Surprise Billing Package Favoring Insurers A key Senate committee last week passed sweeping bi-partisan legislation aimed at tackling surprise billing, increasing transparency of drug pricing and numerous other changes. By a vote of 20-3, the committee sent the package containing 54 different proposals...
Senate's Surprise Billing Plan Favors Insurers Over Providers A key Senate committee last week released an updated version of its Surprise Billing and Transparency Legislation and plans to finalize it this Wednesday. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee settled on a policy to deal with...
New MedPAC Report Identifies ACO Limitations, Recommends Changes New research suggests a popular care model in the Medicare program may not be well suited to restrain spending growth for patients with catastrophic health problems. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's June report to Congress found that program...
CMS Chief Smacks Health Systems and Defends Site Neutral, 340B Payment Cuts CMS Administrator Seema Verma is making it clear where CMS stands on major issues impacting health systems. Late last week in a blog post she called out large hospital systems for anti-competitive behavior, and...
White House May Issue Sweeping Price Transparency Order According to various reports, the White House is working on an Executive Order that will require complete price transparency for a broad range of providers and manufacturers across the health care industry. Rumors have been swirling for weeks that it...
Senate Committee Tackles Health Care Costs with Major Reform Bill The Senate Health Committee has released draft legislation that includes proposals on drug pricing, surprise billing, electronic health records and public health. The bill would set up an information exchange program for commercial insurers, strengthen incentives to improve cybersecurity practices, require...