Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Rural Medicare Programs Extended In Short-Term Spending Bill
Modern Healthcare: Rural Medicare Programs Get Short-Term Extensions From Congress
Two Medicare programs that boost payments for hundreds of rural hospitals were extended through mid-December with the House’s passage of a short-term federal spending package on Friday. (Kane, 9/30)
Fierce Healthcare: Congress Passes Spending Bill That Extends Rural Programs
The House voted 230 to 201 to advance to President Joe Biden’s desk a continuing resolution that funds the federal government through Dec. 16. Biden is expected to sign the legislation. The short-term package gives providers another chance to include key end-of-the-year policy priorities such as delays to Medicare doctor payment cuts and extensions of a key quality bonus. The legislation also extends through Dec. 16 the hospital payment adjustment for certain low-volume hospitals (LVH) and the Medicare-Dependent Hospital (MDH) program. Both programs were set to expire after September. (King, 9/30)
Forbes: Big Health Insurers Will Expand Medicare Advantage To Hundreds Of New Counties For 2023
Health insurance companies that are big players in Medicare Advantage, including Humana, Cigna, CVS Health’s Aetna unit, Elevance Health and UnitedHealth Group are launching popular plans in several new states and hundreds of new counties for 2023. Aetna, which is in 1,875 counties and 46 states plus Washington, D.C. with 3.2 million Medicare Advantage enrollees today is expanding to 2,014 counties and 46 states plus Washington, D.C. (Japsen, 10/1)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: PolitiFact: Democratic Bill Sen. Warnock Voted With Biden On Didn’t 'Slash' Medicare Spending
Although the bill is projected to reduce federal spending by almost $300 billion, that would reflect government savings and not benefit cuts. In other words, Medicare recipients would receive the same amount of medicines, just for less taxpayer money. (Jacobson, 10/3)
CNBC: Some Seniors Make This Costly Medicare Enrollment Mistake. A Bipartisan Bill Looks To Fix It
A bipartisan bill in the House aims to fix a costly enrollment mistake that some older adults make when they transition to Medicare from an employer-based health plan. (O'Brien, 10/2)
More from Capitol Hill —
Politico: The War Against Superbugs Caught In Congressional Quagmire
Lawmakers are on the brink of missing a critical window to fix America’s broken antibiotic market — and to prepare for the growing crisis of superbugs that federal officials say is a national security threat and experts warn is already a silent pandemic. Nearly 50,000 people die each year in the U.S. from drug-resistant and antibiotic-associated infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency says the crisis grew worse during Covid-19 as doctors over-prescribed antibiotics and inundated hospitals failed to control drug-resistant infections, which spiked by at least 15 percent in 2020. (Gardner and Mahr, 10/2)
More from the Biden administration —
AP: US Outlines Plan For Long-Term Baby Formula Imports
U.S. regulators on Friday unveiled their plan to allow foreign baby formula manufacturers to stay on the market long term, an effort to diversify the nation’s tightly concentrated industry and prevent future shortages. The Food and Drug Administration said recent entrants to the U.S. market will have until October 2025 to make sure their formulas comply with federal standards for nutrition, labeling and manufacturing. The agency noted that some companies should be able to meet those requirements sooner. (Perrone, 9/30)
Stat: White House's Open-Access Directive Scrambles Long-Entrenched Models
In August, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy released a memo directing all federal agencies to form plans to make all federally funded research publications and data publicly available without embargo by the end of 2025. (Trang, 10/3)
