Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Promised To Replace Health Law 'Piece By Piece.' What Does That Look Like Two Years Later?
NPR: Trump Is Trying Hard To Thwart Obamacare. How's That Going?
The very day President Trump was sworn in — Jan. 20, 2017 — he signed an executive order instructing administration officials "to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act, while Congress got ready to repeal and replace Barack Obama's signature health law. Months later, repeal and replace didn't work, after the late Arizona Sen. John McCain's dramatic thumbs down on a crucial vote (Trump still frequently mentions this moment in his speeches and rallies, including in his recent speech on Medicare). (Simmons-Duffin, 10/14)
And in other news from the administration —
Modern Healthcare: Stark, Anti-Kickback Rules Aren’t Only Obstacles To Volume-To-Value Transition
In two proposed rules from the CMS and HHS’ Office of Inspector General, the agencies said the current regulations limit data-sharing and care coordination in their attempts to root out fraud. Under the proposed framework, doctors and hospitals could more freely share data across the continuum, and hospitals could pay physicians incentives as part of CMS-sponsored models. The agencies also offered more clarity on fair levels of compensation, among other provisions aiming to ease compliance burdens and facilitate payment models where physicians and hospitals share the financial rewards for delivering lower costs and higher quality. (Kacik and Brady, 10/11)
Modern Healthcare: Proposed Accounting Rule Would Move Some Debt To Current
A proposed accounting rule would flip certain debt from non-current to current, and some hospital leaders say the change—affecting tens of millions of dollars in some cases—could throw their debt ratios out of whack. The Financial Accounting Standards Board says the proposed standard, Topic 470, is meant to simplify debt classification on balance sheets, and comes after stakeholders complained the current method is unnecessarily complex. In essence, the rule would replace current guidance with uniform principles for determining debt classification, according to a FASB explainer. (Bannow, 10/14)
