On April 25, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hosted an office hours session to help providers, facilities, and Medicare beneficiaries prepare for the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) on May 11, 2023. The Agency will post a recording of the session on the CMS National Stakeholder Calls webpage. Will [...] Read More
On April 26-27, the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) held their Annual Meeting to discuss topics impacting medical device manufacturers. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) representatives, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) representatives, industry representatives, and others presented and held discussions at the forum. The agenda and full list of speakers can be found [...] Read More
Healthcare spending in the United States is expected to surpass $4.7 trillion in 2023. As Applied Policy has previously reported, some of that money may be spent on unproven, ineffective, unnecessarily expensive, or even harmful practices. Some of it will be spent on effective treatments for which there are less expensive alternatives. Some of it [...] Read More
On April 10th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS) for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System proposed rule. See the press release here. CMS released a fact sheetaccompanying the rule. The rule proposes to: increase [...] Read More
On April 3, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule. CMS released a fact sheet accompanying the rule. This rule proposes to: increase IRF payment rates by 3.0 percent, revise and rebase the IRF market basket to a [...] Read More
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia currently have some form of certificate of need (CON) requirement under which specified healthcare organizations—including hospitals, outpatient facilities, and long-term care facilities—must secure approval from a state regulatory agency before undertaking major capital expenditures or program expansions. Depending on each state’s CON program, hospitals looking to add beds, increase their [...] Read More
On February 8, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) held a webinar on a recently proposed rule on advancing interoperability and improving prior authorization. The proposed rule, Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes for Medicare Advantage Organizations, was released on December 6, 2022 with a fact sheet and press release. The [...] Read More
Many of Applied Policy’s clients are global organizations with a keen interest in what challenges and opportunities exist for diagnostic lab tests around the world. Particularly as healthcare systems transition from unprecedented pandemic testing situations, we see countries reassessing not only lab budgets but testing priorities. This month, we share the results of our “check-up” [...] Read More
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval for the use of lecanemab-irmb (Leqembi) for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease last month, patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, their families, caregivers, and clinicians met the news with a mixture of hope and hesitation. Decades without progress in therapeutic options have made the Alzheimer’s community [...] Read More
Two decades ago, value-based purchasing (VBP) and health equity were emerging concepts in healthcare, largely unknown outside of policy conversations or schools of public health or health administration. Today, they are driving principles in American healthcare. But some are asking if they are oppositional goals and, if so, how the two can be reconciled. Parallel [...] Read More