CMS

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

Builds on President Biden’s Historic Commitment to Create a Long-Term Care System Where People Can Live with Dignity 

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued a proposed rule that seeks to establish comprehensive staffing requirements for nursing homes—including, for the first time, national minimum nurse staffing standards—to ensure access to safe, high-quality care for the over 1.2 million residents living in nursing homes each day. This proposed rule builds on the President’s historic Action Plan for Nursing Home Reform launched in the 2022 State of the Union.

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

CMS Takes Action to Protect Health Care Coverage for Children and Families

• States must assess and fix their systems so eligible children and families can stay covered. 

Today, and as part of its ongoing work to make sure all Americans have access to health care coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands requiring them to determine whether they have an eligibility systems issue that could cause people, especially children, to be disenrolled from Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) even if they are still eligible for coverage, and requiring them to immediately act to correct the problem and reinstate coverage.

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

Since 2013, Navigators have helped Americans understand their health insurance options and facilitated their enrollment in health insurance coverage through the Federally-facilitated Marketplace (FFM). As trusted community partners, their mission focuses on assisting the uninsured and other underserved communities. Navigators serve an important role in connecting communities to health coverage, including communities that historically have experienced lower access to health coverage and greater disparities in health outcomes. Entities and individuals cannot serve as Navigators without receiving federal cooperative agreement funding, authorized in the Affordable Care Act, to perform Navigator duties.

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (note: this press release actually came out on August 16th):

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was signed into law on August 16, 2022. The new law provides meaningful financial relief for millions of people with Medicare by improving access to affordable treatments and strengthening the Medicare Program both now and in the long run. The law makes improvements to Medicare by expanding benefits, lowering drug costs, keeping prescription drug premiums stable, and improving the strength of the Medicare program. The law also extends enhanced financial help to purchase HealthCare.gov and state-based Marketplace plans and expands access to Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended vaccines for adults with Medicaid coverage. 

Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act:

Last month the Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services (CMS) director of the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO...yeah, those names & acronyms just roll off the tongue, don't they?) informed the state of Georgia that they're gonna have to wait one more year before launching their own fully state-based ACA exchange (SBE) platform.

Georgia's insurance commissioner wasn't pleased about the delay, to say the least, but he agreed to bump the launch out another year even if he grumbled while doing so.

There were several reasons given for the 1-year delay, but many of them stemmed from the fact that Georgia was attempting to skip the "Federally-Facilitated" SBE phase which every other state which has made the transition to their own full state-based platform has undergone for at least one year.

Earlier this afternoon, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS, which should really be CMMS) released a much-awaited (by healthcare wonks) Effectuated Enrollment Report for Affordable Care Act on-exchange enrollment.

While nearly 16.4 million Americans selected Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) via the federal and state ACA exchanges/marketplaces during the official 2023 Open Enrollment Period (along with an additional 1.2 million signing up for a Basic Health Plan (BHP) program in New York & Minnesota, which CMS continues to inexplicably treat as an afterthought in such reports), not all of them actually pay their first monthly premium (for January) for various reasons:

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

In April 2023, 94,151,768 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

• 87,062,629 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid in April 2023, an increase of 348,055 individuals from March 2023.

• 7,089,139​​​​​​​ individuals were enrolled in CHIP in April 2023, a decrease of 73,121 individuals from March 2023.

• Since February 2020, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP has increased by 23,276,699 individuals (32.8%).
  • Medicaid enrollment has increased by 22,982,836 individuals (35.9%).
  • CHIP enrollment has increased by 293,863 individuals (4.3%).

Medicaid enrollment likely increased due to the COVID-19 PHE and Medicaid continuous enrollment condition under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which started in March 2020 and ended on March 31, 2023.

See my prior post about short-term, limited duration plans & their regulation history under the Obama, Trump & Biden Administrations.

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance; Independent, Noncoordinated Excepted Benefits Coverage; Level-Funded Plan Arrangements; and Tax Treatment of Certain Accident and Health Insurance (CMS-9904-P)

Jul 07, 2023

Original story: 6/29/23:

I haven't written about #ShortAssPlans ("Short-Term, Limited Duration") healthcare policies since back in January, when it was announced that the Biden Administration would be announcing new regulations on them sometime in April 2023. Obviously that time has come and gone, but it looks like the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is finally ready for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to roll the new rule out:

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Office of the Actuary released projections of National Health Expenditures (NHE) and health insurance enrollment for the years 2022-2031. The report contains expected impacts from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including that people with Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D) are projected to experience lower out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs for 2024 and beyond as several provisions from the law begin to take effect.