CMS

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

Inflation Reduction Act Continues to Lower Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Costs for Drugs with Price Increases Above Inflation

• CMS announces savings for some people with Medicare on 34 Part B prescription drugs

A continuing key priority of the Biden-Harris Administration is lowering prescription drug costs for seniors and families. Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the list of 34 prescription drugs for which Part B beneficiary coinsurances may be lower between October 1 – December 31, 2023. Some people with Medicare who take these drugs may save between $1 and $618 per average dose starting October 1, 2023, depending on their individual coverage. Through the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden and his Administration are lowering prescription drug costs for millions of American seniors and their families. 

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

CMS Approves Added Benefits to Essential Health Benefits (EHB) Benchmark Plans in North Dakota and Virginia

September 6: CMS approved added benefits to the Essential Health Benefits (EHB) benchmark plans for North Dakota and Virginia for the 2025 plan year. The Affordable Care Act requires non-grandfathered health plans in the individual and small group markets to cover essential health benefits (EHB), which include items and services in ten benefit categories. For plan year 2020 and after, the Final 2019 HHS Notice of Benefits and Payment Parameters provides states with greater flexibility by establishing new standards for states to update their EHB-benchmark plans, and for tailoring them to fit the health care needs of their states.

Here's the best summaries I could find of the additional benefits for each state:

North Dakota:

Over at Inside Health Policy, Amy Lotven has an excellent scoop from a new CMS report which was hiding in plain sight:

New CMS data, quietly released in late August, show about 178,000 consumers chose a qualified health plan (QHP) through a state or federal exchanges after losing Medicaid and CHIP coverage in the first two months of the Medicaid unwinding. Those sign-ups through the end of May are more than three times the 54,000 enrollments that CMS reported in July, which reflected only the April numbers.

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

In May 2023, 93,815,749 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

• 86,783,676 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid in May 2023, a decrease of 279,373 individuals (-0.3%) from April 2023.

• 7,032,073 individuals were enrolled in CHIP in May 2023, a decrease of 41,687 individuals (0.6%) from April 2023

• As of May 2023, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP has decreased by 61,085 since March 2023, the final month of the Medicaid continuous enrollment condition under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.
  • Medicaid enrollment has increased by 69,102 individuals (0.1%).
  • CHIP enrollment has decreased by 130,187 individuals (1.8%)

• Between February 2020 and March 2023, enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP increased by 23,001,765 individuals (32.5%) to 93,876,834.
  • Medicaid enrollment increased by 22,634,781 individuals (35.3%).
  • CHIP enrollment increased by 366,984 individuals (5.4%)

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: