Panel Recommends Changes For Medicare Advantage Payments

Modern Healthcare: MedPAC Likely To Recommend An Effective Cut In Medicare Advantage Spending
A congressional advisory panel will likely recommend a new benchmark policy for Medicare Advantage at its April meeting. According to a presentation during a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission meeting on Thursday, the changes would adjust how CMS ties Medicare Advantage payments to fee-for-service spending, increase the rebate to at least 75% and adopt a discount rate of at least 2%. The draft recommendation would also apply earlier benchmark-related recommendations by the commission, like using geographic markets as payment areas and ending the pre-ACA cap on benchmarks. "Plan rates are going to get cut," said Pat Wang, a MedPAC commissioner and CEO of insurer Healthfirst. (Brady, 3/5)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Want To Grow Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Managed Care
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak economic havoc, an increasing number of states are contracting with Medicaid managed-care companies. The operating theory is that privatizing services for the lowest-income population will add more predictability to state budgets and lower overall healthcare costs. But those considerations come at a risk, providers say, fearing that the trend will lead to lower reimbursement rates and higher administrative costs. (Tepper, 3/6)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Hospital, Nursing Home Losses Dampen February's Healthcare Hiring
Healthcare hiring was anemic in February, which was still welcome news after January's job losses. Preliminary federal jobs data released Friday show the healthcare industry added 19,900 jobs last month. While a smaller gain than other months in the industry's recovery from the COVID-19 fallout, February's modest hiring represents a rebound from January, in which the industry shed 84,700 jobs. While a noteworthy drop, that's still a far cry from the 1.4 million jobs the industry lost in April 2020, the month that contained the majority of healthcare's pandemic-related job losses. (Bannow, 3/5)

Stat: As Virtual Care Booms, Experts Call For New Health Data Privacy Protections 
A drop in your daily step count. A missed period. A loss of hearing. If it’s collected by a smartwatch or wearable, that health data isn’t protected the same way your medical records are. And as wearables like smartwatches and headphones sweep up an increasing amount of health data — flagging potential medical issues that could be used for ad targeting or to discriminate against someone — some lawmakers and researchers are calling for a reconsideration of the current approach. (Brodwin, 3/8)

Stat: Multiple Founders Of Time’s Up Healthcare Resign 
At least four founding members of Time’s Up Healthcare resigned Thursday from the organization following a lawsuit that suggests two other founders did not respond appropriately to reports of sexual harassment and assault in their separate jobs at Oregon Health and Science University. Both Esther Choo and Laura Stadum are mentioned in a legal complaint filed in February in an Oregon federal court by an anonymous employee of the Veterans Affairs hospital, in which the employee alleges that a resident who is well-known on Twitter and TikTok harassed her, sending her “sexually-charged social media messages” and once pushed his erect penis against her body. (Sheridan, 3/5)

Stat: How IBM's Audacious Plan To 'Change The Face Of Health Care' Fell Apart
It was a summer day in 2018, and the outlook could hardly have seemed more bleak for Watson Health, IBM’s self-described “moonshot” to revolutionize medicine with artificial intelligence. The operation was reeling from layoffs and sharply critical media reports, and several of its product lines had failed to meet revenue targets. But Lisa Rometty, a vice president of the business, painted an entirely different picture at a global meeting of hundreds of employees by video conference. (Ross and Aguilar, 3/8)