Hospice Audit Series: Beyond Part D, OIG Scrutinizes the Hospice Industry to the Tune of $6.6 Billion
Kim Brandt on the Latest Washington Healthcare News
Part Two: The MFN Drug Pricing Rule and the Rebate Rule: Where Do We Go From Here?
Part One: Two new Medicare Drug Pricing Rules in One Day: What are the MFN and the Rebate Drug Pricing Rules?
K&L Gates Triage: 340B Update: CMS Finalizes 340B Program Reimbursement Cut on Part B Drugs
K&L Gates Triage: 340B Regulatory Update: CMS Proposal and Draft Executive Order Could Have Big Impact on 340B Program
This issue of McDermott’s Healthcare Regulatory Check-Up highlights regulatory activity for June 2024. We discuss several US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agency actions, including guidance regarding hospital...more
Sharpen your pencils and locate your reading glasses: the final Medicare payment regulations for calendar year (CY) 2024 will be released within the next week. In the last Regs & Eggs blog post, I discussed a major issue...more
Holland & Knight Health Dose is an in-depth weekly dose of legislative and regulatory insights to keep stakeholders abreast of happenings in Washington, D.C., impacting the health sector. ...more
Below is Alston & Bird’s Health Care Week in Review, which provides a synopsis of the latest news in health care regulations, notices, and guidance; federal legislation and congressional committee action; reports, studies,...more
On Aug. 4, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published its proposed rule, Nondiscrimination in Health Care and Activities (Proposed Rule), to revise its regulations pertaining to Section 1557 of the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with medical providers on June 15, 2022, after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cut Medicare Part B reimbursements to healthcare providers serving disadvantaged communities....more
Drug Pricing Initiatives: Debate continues regarding the drug pricing measures pending in Congress. On June 22, 2021, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden released legislative principles that, among other things, would...more
This week in Washington: Washington’s focus has been on the presidential and Senate races....more
On July 31, 2020, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision reversing a lower court decision and upholding Medicare payment cuts to certain hospitals participating in the 340B drug pricing program that have been in...more
This week, the Friday surprise came courtesy of the D.C. Court of Appeals. In a long-awaited split decision, the court ruled that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acted lawfully when it reduced Medicare...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released several fact sheets on COVID-19 coverage and benefits, and announced a second Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code, U0002, for billing COVID-19...more
In Part One of this two-part series on recent developments in pharmacy law and the 340B drug pricing program, Richard Church and Ryan Severson discuss several recent developments that may affect drug pricing and pharmacy...more
Health plans and their delegated IPAs are using a number of different tactics to deny payment for inpatient services by improperly classifying inpatient claims as observation or other types of outpatient status. Payers are...more
On May 5, a federal district court judge ruled in favor of the hospital industry plaintiffs that sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for including in the 2019 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System...more
The U.S. government has appealed a federal district court decision issued in December 2018 that found the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) exceeded its authority by reducing Part B drug reimbursement to certain...more
On December 27, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a permanent injunction to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop a major reduction in Medicare reimbursement to hospitals...more
A federal district court granted a permanent injunction against the Medicare Part B 2018 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (“OPPS”) payment cuts for separately payable, non-pass through drugs purchased through the 340B...more
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a new proposed reimbursement model for certain Medicare Part B drugs and biologicals. • The proposed structure, called the International Pricing Index (IPI)...more
Congress - Senate - Senate Vote Fails to Block Trump Administration’s Short-Term Health Plans - On Oct. 10, the Senate failed to block the Trump administration’s expansion of short-term insurance plans. The...more
Providers, plans, and vendors that provide services under the Medicare Advantage program, should be aware that the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) is once again...more
As the Trump Administration moves forward with proposed policy changes to address high drug prices, a common theme is emerging: a number of the proposals have the potential to reduce Medicare reimbursement to hospitals and...more
Enforcement - OIG Issues Advisory Opinion on Provision of Samples by a Device Distributor - On April 30, 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a...more
On April 2, 2018, CMS issued updated guidance related to the dramatic Medicare payment reductions that went into effect this year for certain 340B hospitals. The guidance explains the planned application of the payment cuts...more
The Trump Administration on Feb. 12 released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget request, titled "An American Budget." Unlike last year's budget, which was released in late May, the release of this budget conforms to the typical...more
As required by a 2014 statute, CMS has issued proposed regulations (Proposed Rule) implementing new requirements for laboratory reporting of, and eventually basing Medicare payment on, rates for clinical laboratory services...more