Articles and Blogs

Congress Returns for Fall Work Period Congress returned to Washington this week after their longest break of the calendar year. The Senate reengaged on the issue of ACA repeal and began hearings on a legislative package to stabilize the ACA marketplace. On September 6-7, the Senate HELP Committee held hearings with state insurance commissioners... READ MORE

CMS Issues 2018 Hospital Payment Rule On August 2, CMS announced the fiscal year (“FY”) 2018 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System and Long-Term Care Hospital (“LTCH”) Prospective Payment System final rule, which will provide acute care hospitals with a total increase in Medicare spending on inpatient hospital payments of $2.4 billion in FY 2018.... READ MORE

Senate Votes Down ACA Repeal Attempt In the early morning of July 28, the Senate voted down (49-51) a last ditch effort by Senate Republican leadership to repeal the ACA. Republican leadership and the White House were hoping to pass a “skinny” ACA repeal bill that would have eliminated the individual mandate and blocked... READ MORE

Senate Plans Scrambled on Health Reform Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) once again delayed proceedings on Republican plans for health care reform. While McConnell is still considering whether to hold a vote on a bill to repeal and replace the ACA or a repeal-only measure, Republicans remain at odds over Medicaid, overall coverage... READ MORE

Stark Reform Legislation Introduced and Advanced in the House On July 10, Reps. Marchant (R-TX) and Ron Kind (D-WI) reintroduced the Stark Administrative Simplification Act (H.R. 3173).  The bipartisan legislation would limit the penalties for technical violations of the Stark Law and create an expedited process for their resolution. The measure was introduced as... READ MORE

Senate Delays Vote on BCRA On June 27, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced the Senate would delay voting on the Better Care Reconciliation Act (“BCRA”). The Senate was scheduled to vote Wednesday on a motion to proceed with debate on its version of legislation to repeal a significant portion of the Affordable Care... READ MORE

Senate Releases Draft ACA Repeal and Replace Bill On June 22, the Senate released its version of legislation that would repeal and replace significant portions of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). The 142-page discussion draft, titled the Better Care Reconciliation Act (“BCRA”), is the first legislative text released by Senate leadership to repeal the... READ MORE

Senate GOP Still Without AHCA Legislative Text As the countdown to the July 4 recess continues, Republicans in the Senate continue to seek consensus within their party on health care reform legislation. However, as of this writing, rank-and-file Republicans still haven’t seen legislative text on their body’s version of the American Health Care Act... READ MORE

ACA Repeal Update Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reiterated this week his desire to release the Senate’s version of the American Health Care Act (“AHCA”) by the end of June and have a vote before the July 4 recess. However, meeting the ambitious July 4 deadline would require the Congressional Budget Office (“CBO”)... READ MORE

Senate Republicans Begin Work on AHCA Republican senators will work through June to make what are expected to be major changes to the House-passed American Health Care Act (“AHCA”). When Congress returns the week of June 5, Senate leadership is expected to distribute a first draft of their version of the health care reform... READ MORE