Lawmakers press federal officials on Obamacare performance Houston Chronicle September 10, 2014
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pressed top officials from the IRS and Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday for answers on how the Affordable Care Act will be improved as tax season and the second year of open enrollment approach. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, stressed that the seriously flawed implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, has degraded public trust and mostly hurt the American people. "The ACA has helped some Americans, no doubt," Brady said. "But it has hurt many more." Brady and other lawmakers pushed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for specifics on how people who signed up for healthcare through the exchanges and received subsidies will file taxes. Koskinen said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing that the majority of people who signed up will simply need to check a box on their tax form. But he added that some will not be able to use the form, and will have to fill out more paperwork.
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IRS chief: 'Whenever we can, we follow the law' The Hill September 10, 2014 http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/217288-irs-official-whenever-we-can-we-follow-the-law
During another grueling hearing on the ObamaCare rollout, the head of the IRS tried to offer lawmakers an assurance about the soon-to-open enrollment period. “Whenever we can, we follow the law,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health on Wednesday. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who leads the subcommittee, immediately expressed his concern with the remarks. “I encourage you to follow the law in all instances,” Brady said. Koskinen, who was confirmed as head of IRS last December, has repeatedly faced lawmakers' ire over the agency's targeting of conservative groups. Lawmakers spent a majority of Wednesday's hearing grilling Koskinen and Andy Slavitt, HealthCare.gov's fix-it man, on how they would verify that consumers were providing correct income information as they signed up for
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ONC Makes EHR Certification A Little Easier, Kills 'Voluntary' 2015 Plan Forbes September 10, 2014
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today loosened its criteria for certifying electronic health records (EHRs) for participation in the federal EHR incentive program known as Meaningful Use. The ONC has added 10 new optional criteria to its standards and revised two mandatory points in an effort to “provide flexibility, clarity and enhance health information exchange,” according to official documents. It also does away with a highly unpopular plan to create a set of “voluntary” certification standards for 2015 that the ONC had said was an attempt to uncouple certification from the three stages of Meaningful Use and have an incremental tightening of criteria during the three years of Stage 2, which started this year. All providers seeking Medicare and Medicaid bonus payments for Meaningful Use must use “certified” EHR technology. The rules released today affect vendors, who must go through the process of certifying their products. The changes will be published Thursday in the Federal Register.
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CMS delays dialysis center five-star rating system Modern Health Care September 10, 2014 http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140910/NEWS/309109938
The federal government will wait until January to roll out its five-star rating system meant to help consumers compare quality at dialysis centers and is reevaluating the timeline for extending it to hospitals and home care providers. Use of the system on the CMS' dialysis centers compare website had been scheduled for October, but was met with angst by dialysis providers who questioned the methodology and said the program was likely to be more confusing than helpful. In response, the federal agency announced Wednesday that it has moved the date by about three months.
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A.G. Schneiderman Announces Settlement With Health Insurer That Increases Out-Of-Network Disclosure Requirements And Establishes $3.5 Million Fund To Reimburse Members For Out-Of-Network Expenses Press Release New York Attorney General’s Office September 9, 2014 Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced an agreement with GHI, a subsidiary of EmblemHealth, Inc., New York’s largest health insurer, that requires improved plan disclosures for out-of-network provider benefits to those members who sign up for GHI's Comprehensive Benefits Plan. The settlement also provides that GHI establish a $3.5 million consumer assistance fund to provide financial relief to members, most of them New York City employees, and pay $300,000 in penalties to the Attorney General’s office. -------- Agencies awarded grants for health care marketplace work Columbia Daily Tribune September 9, 2014 Four agencies in Missouri were awarded federal grants Monday to help consumers navigate their health care coverage options in the online federal marketplace that begins open enrollment in November. The list of grantees did not include Columbia-based Primaris, which was one of two Missouri entities sharing $1.8 million in navigator grant funds a year ago. Last year, Primaris led a statewide coalition of 11 agencies that provided navigator services. The absence of a new grant means the elimination of four jobs at Primaris, including program director Jeremy Milarsky, who was named 2014 Health Advocate of the Year in June by the Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance. “This is the nature of government grant-funded work,” Milarsky said this morning. “We thought we had a strong proposal,” but “we knew this was a possibility.” Primaris will have four staff members working as enrollment counselors under a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. Other local agencies with enrollment counseling funded by the foundation include Central Missouri Community Action and the Family Health Center. -------- House passes bill to undo rural hospital supervision requirement The Hill September 9, 2014 The House on Tuesday passed legislation to delay enforcement of supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services in certain hospitals. Passed by voice vote, the bill would prevent the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from requiring Critical Access Hospitals and small rural hospitals from needing a physician to supervise therapeutic services like drawing blood. CMS began enforcing the rule in January. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas), the measure's sponsor, said the requirement unnecessarily burdened small hospitals who may lack the resources. "This is a change in policy that will put a strain on providers while providing no quality improvements for the patients they serve," Jenkins said. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said the bill would prevent the possibility for people being unable to receive care at the hospitals. -------- Area agencies win grants to advise people on purchasing health plans St. Louis Dispatch September 8, 2014
Two Missouri groups and nine Illinois firms were awarded grants Monday to help insurance shoppers sign up for health plans on the online marketplace during the upcoming enrollment period. The Community Action Agency of St. Louis County will receive an estimated $144,000 to fund so-called insurance navigators for the enrollment period that runs from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15, 2015. The Missouri Alliance of Area Agencies on Aging will get a projected $954,618, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Affordable Care Act allocated funds for advisers, or navigators, to help people navigate the new online exchanges and to determine whether they might qualify for tax credits toward their premiums or free or low-cost coverage through Medicaid. Catherine Edwards, executive director of the Missouri Alliance of Area Agencies, said she was very pleased the organization received the grant funding for the second year in a row. “We are confident that we can do the work because of the network we have in place,” she said, adding that alliance members had a combined 97 certified navigators last year. -------- GAO: Arkansas Medicaid plan not revenue-neutral Sacramento Bee September 8, 2014 http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/08/6690130/gao-arkansas-medicaid-plan-not.html Arkansas' Medicaid expansion plan, in which the state uses federal dollars to buy private health insurance for its poorer residents, will cost taxpayers an extra $778 million over the next three years rather than being "revenue-neutral" to the federal budget, according to a government report released Monday. The plan's supporters disputed the findings. According to the U.S. General Accountability Office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn't ensure that Arkansas' "private option" Medicaid plan wouldn't cost the federal government additional money. It said DHHS-imposed spending limits of $4 billion were about $778 million more than what would have been expected under the traditional fee-for-service Medicaid program. The nation's new health care law allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes of up to 133 percent of the poverty line. Arkansas' plan, initially approved in 2013 and reauthorized in March, was the first to seek permission to use Medicaid dollars to buy private insurance for the poor. State legislators will be asked to reauthorize it again next year. -------- Government Accountability Office says private option not budget-neutral Arkansas News September 8, 2014 The U.S. Government Accountability Office is projecting that Arkansas’ so-called private option will cost federal taxpayers $778 million more than expanding traditional Medicaid would have cost. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services disagreed with the projections in the GAO report released Monday. The federal Affordable Car Act proposed that states expand their Medicaid rolls to include people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, but Arkansas obtained permission to use the federal Medicaid money that would have gone to traditional Medicaid expansion to subsidize private insurance for people in that income group. The federal government is to pay the full cost of the program for the first three years, after which the state’s share of the cost will increase gradually to 10 percent. The GAO said in its report that it does not expect the program to be “budget-neutral” for the federal government during its first three years. --------- Burwell Speech Aims to Hit Reset Button at HHS Wall Street Journal September 8, 2014 http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/09/08/burwell-speech-aims-to-hit-reset-button-at-hhs/
New Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell tried to hit the reset button on perceptions of the health-care rollout in her first public speech since taking the job at the embattled department overseeing it. “What I’ve told my team at HHS is that we’re not here to fight last year’s battles, we’re here to fight for affordability, access and quality,” said Ms. Burwell to an audience of George Washington University students and faculty on Monday. “Let’s move beyond the back and forth, let’s move forward together.” Ms. Burwell is stepping into the spotlight after around 100 days on the job and as the agency tries to reorient itself in time for the new enrollment season when millions more Americans are supposed to come to HealthCare.gov to buy coverage in just a few weeks. She has brought on board several new faces since taking over as secretary from Kathleen Sebelius. They include the head of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange Kevin Counihan to serve as CEO for the site, former clean-up contractor Andy Slavitt as an operations administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and her former Walmart colleague Leslie Dach as her senior counselor.After
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Burwell calls for end to O-Care strife The Hill September 8, 2014 http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/216927-burwell-calls-for-end-to-o-care-strife
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Monday called for an end to the strident partisan debates over ObamaCare that have dominated U.S. politics for four years. In her first major public address, Burwell mounted a strong defense of the healthcare law, but described her mission as tamping down political controversy to focus on the rollout. "The Affordable Care Act is not about making a point. It's about making progress," she told an audience at George Washington University. The speech was Burwell's first chance to speak publicly about ObamaCare since she was confirmed by the Senate in early June. She has given no press conferences or interviews so far. Painting herself as a folksy and no-nonsense leader, the former Clinton administration official repeatedly urged people to move past the "back
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First Plan Is Blocked, Virginia Governor Reduces Medicaid Expansion Goals New York Times September 8, 2014 After fuming at state lawmakers and threatening unilateral action, Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia took only modest steps on Monday to extend health care to the poor and disabled, retreating on the issue he has chosen to define his first eight months in office. Mr. McAuliffe, who in June ordered his cabinet to devise a plan for unilateral action by Sept. 1, in the face of what he called Republican “demagoguery” and “cowardice,” announced that only 25,000 uninsured Virginians would be receiving coverage, far fewer than the 400,000 he has said are eligible if the state expands Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The retreat seemed Mr. McAuliffe’s acceptance that he is politically hemmed in, especially after Republicans took control of both houses of the General Assembly following the surprise resignation of a Democratic senator in June.
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Terry McAuliffe Unveils More Modest Medicaid Expansion Plan For Virginia Huffington Post September 8, 2014 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/08/terry-mcauliffe-virginia-medicaid_n_5785640.html Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe proposed a plan on Monday to provide medical insurance for 25,000 uninsured Virginians, a move that falls short of his vow to expand coverage to 400,000 people despite Republican objections. McAuliffe said in June after losing a fight with the Republican-controlled legislature over Medicaid, the federal-state healthcare program for the poor, that he would close the gap without lawmakers' help. The 25,000 Virginians who would get insurance group about 20,000 people who are mentally ill and 5,000 children of state employees, the governor said in a statement. The insurance expansion is part of a 10-point healthcare program that would affect more than 200,000 people, mostly by improving care for those already in Medicaid and boosting efforts to sign up Virginians who qualify for it but are not enrolled. McAuliffe, who took office in January, said he would use $40 million in leftover state health care funds to provide coverage for the mentally ill.
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Va. Gov. McAuliffe abandons plan for broad Medicaid expansion The Hill September 8, 2014 http://thehill.com/policy/finance/216978-va-gov-mcauliffe-abandons-plan-for-broad-medicaid-expansion Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe revealed plans Monday for a more modest expansion of Medicaid, bowing to Republican opposition that has consumed his first year. The Democratic governor's plan would extend coverage to about 25,000 uninsured Virginians — just one-tenth of those who would have benefited by a full expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act. McAuliffe, though, vowed to use federal dollars to close the state’s Medicaid coverage gap, even if he is forced to act without the support of the state’s GOP-controlled legislature. State GOP lawmakers have blocked McAuliffe’s push to extend the program under the health law, with 66 out of 67 state House Republicans voting against Medicaid expansion this spring. Debates over the issue nearly led to an unprecedented government shutdown this summer.
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Obamacare citizenship, immigration proof due The News Journal September 5, 2014 Friday is the deadline for 700 Delaware residents to verify their citizenship or immigration status or lose their Obamacare health insurance. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the nation's Obamacare plans under terms of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, sent 310,000 warning letters last month to those whose coverage was in jeopardy nationwide. About 700 Delaware residents were to get those letters. But the feds never provided any list to state officials, according to state Secretary of Health & Social Services Rita Landgraf, so the state could not try to reach them and it does not know the status of those enrollees. Landgraf told the Delaware Health Care Commission that her department had tried to spread the word about the deadline, but couldn't do so directly. Jill Fredel, DHSS spokeswoman, said CMS cited "privacy reasons" for its decision not to provide individual information to the state. Click here to view a list of last week's news items. |