HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Friday, October 16
Today’s pressure point is operational evidence: CMS is asking states to maintain the daily data that keeps dual-eligible coverage aligned, while its Star…
Latest
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Thursday, October 15
CMS is putting precise numbers behind Marketplace cleanup—189,000 records and a projected $1.5 billion in savings—but not the error and reinstatement…
NIH proposes a new chief AI office inside the director’s coordination division
The National Institutes of Health wants to give artificial intelligence a more explicit home in its organizational chart.
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Wednesday, October 14
CMS is moving its rural-health program from award ceremony to implementation, and that shift exposes the real policy test: whether new equipment…
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Tuesday, October 13
The useful signal this morning comes from the states, not Washington: Utah is turning independent clinical evaluation into a condition of health-AI…
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Monday, October 12
Today’s pressure point is operational accountability.
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Friday, October 9
CMS has turned the end of the week into an operations drill: a bad email address can shut off Medicare eligibility transactions, small practices face a…
CMS Bundles Prior-Authorization and Gender-Care Assurances Into a Fast-Track Medicaid Paperwork Notice
CMS is asking for comments by October 9 on five Medicaid and CHIP information collections packaged under its expedited “generic” clearance process.
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Thursday, October 8
CMS has opened a consequential but technical front: modernizing remote laboratory work without letting accountability evaporate into the cloud.
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Wednesday, October 7
Washington’s live pressure point is data that can actually be used.
CMS proposes removing a coding prerequisite from Medicare’s drug pass-through application
CMS is proposing a small but concrete paperwork change for applicants seeking transitional pass-through payment for new drugs, biologicals, and…
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Tuesday, October 6
The price-transparency fight is moving from “publish the data” to “make the data usable—and prove it is honest.”
Administrative Simplification
CMS bundles Medicaid prior-authorization assurances with four other state templates—and opens a short comment window
CMS is asking for public comment by October 9 on five Medicaid and CHIP information collections, including a new state-plan template tied to the 2024…
Interoperability
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Monday, October 5
CMS fixed a payment-recovery trap for qualifying APM participants.
Privacy and Security
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Friday, October 2
Today’s implementation pressure: a final CMS drug model, a refreshed ONC cybersecurity tool, and Medicare Advantage enforcement all test who owns the…
Administrative Simplification
FDA Keeps Its Medical-Device Quality Program Private—and Largely Unchanged
FDA is asking the Office of Management and Budget to renew the paperwork authority for its Voluntary Improvement Program, the agency’s third-party…
Interoperability
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Thursday, October 1
CMS is testing an alternative Part B drug-inflation-rebate calculation using international net-price benchmarks.
Physician Payment
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Wednesday, September 30
The live federal pressure point today is enforcement without collateral damage.
Briefing
CMS Corrects FY 2027 Hospital Payment Math Two Days Before It Takes Effect
CMS published a 16-page correction to its fiscal 2027 hospital payment rule on September 29, with the changes effective October 1.
Interoperability
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Tuesday, September 29
ONC has a better cyber checklist for smaller practices—but it is not a compliance shield.
Interoperability
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Monday, September 28
The federal shelf is quiet this morning, but one standards lever expires tonight.
Administrative Simplification
CMS Bundles Prior-Authorization Compliance and New Medicaid Templates Into a “Generic” Paperwork Notice
CMS is taking comments through October 9 on five Medicaid and CHIP information collections, including a new state-plan template tied to federal…
Privacy and Security
HEALTH POLICY BRIEF — Friday, September 25
Today’s useful signal is not a new federal mandate; it is the implementation boundary where public money and vendor promises meet physician workflow.
Administrative Simplification
CMS Is Turning Medicaid Prior-Authorization Rules Into State-Plan Paperwork
CMS will publish a Federal Register notice on September 25 seeking comment on five Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program information…