Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Tom Price Is A Sharp Critic Of Obama-Led Shift Toward Value-Based System For Medicare
The Fiscal Times: Controversial Medicare Payment Reforms May Hit A Wall At Trump’s HHS
The Obama administration and congressional Republicans and Democrats took added steps in 2015 that potentially could discourage overbilling and other fraudulent activities by changing the way doctors are reimbursed for their services. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) was designed to shift the medical system away from tradition “fee-for-service” and towards rewarding the quality of service in a bid to save hundreds of billions in the coming decades. But while the Obama administration took an important step last October by issuing the proposed new regulations to implement the law, they could be stopped in their tracks under the new Republican leadership at HHS. (Pianin, 3/28)
In other Medicare news —
Kaiser Health News: Justice Department Joins Lawsuit Alleging Massive Medicare Fraud By UnitedHealth
The Justice Department has joined a California whistleblower’s lawsuit that accuses insurance giant UnitedHealth Group of fraud in its popular Medicare Advantage health plans. Justice officials filed legal papers to intervene in the suit, first brought by whistleblower James Swoben in 2009, on Friday in federal court in Los Angeles. On Monday, they sought a court order to combine Swoben’s case with that of another whistleblower. (Schulte, 3/29)
