CMS has increased the Medicare payment rate by $12 for administering single-dose Covid-19 vaccines and by $35 for two-dose vaccines. The payment increase aims to support providers as they ramp up vaccine administration.
Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission Releases March 2021 Report to Congress
Targeted News Service
March 15, 2021:
March 2021 Report to
Congress on Medicaid and CHIP today, recommending that
Congress adopt measures aimed at improving Medicaid s responsiveness during economic downturns; addressing concerns about high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality; and reexamining Medicaid s estate recovery policies. The report also contains additional topics of interest to
Congress such as integrating care for people who are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare, and improving hospital payment policy for the nation s safety net hospitals. This report offers
Congress a number of timely recommendations it can take to improve Medicaid s programmatic response to national challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as racial and ethnic disparities in health, said MACPAC Chair
“COVID-19 has mucked up the insurance marketplace as a whole – including private employer-provided plans,” said Michael Giusti, InsuranceQuotes.com analyst.
Giusti outlined a number of key takeaway for health insurance in 2021 in a recent report for Insurancequotes.com.
First, he said, the pandemic made setting premiums especially challenging. Premiums are set based on the previous year’s claims data. Because 2020 was marked by a combination of huge intensive care costs, but almost no preventative care costs, that model was flipped on its head. As a result, median health premium edged up just a percent or two in 2021.
But many in the insurance industry are holding their collective breath as things get back to normal, he noted. A major worry is that deferred care will come crashing through the system by this summer, representing a flood of claims once people are willing to see a doctor again.
The harrowing stories out of Texas last month are a stark reminder that climate-induced chaos is no respecter of party affiliation. Cushioning the blow of these impacts and building resiliency against future catastrophe is going to take something extraordinary in today’s political climate: working together.
Many will wave this away as impossibly naive. Views regarding the reality of climate change are simply too polarized. Among those who accept the reality of a changing climate, the distance between those advocating for a Green New Deal and those in favor of market-driven, innovation-based solutions is too far to bridge.
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Yet the distance may be closer than most people think. Since 2012, more than 3 million self-described pro-life evangelicals motivated to defend the unborn and to honor the Bible’s call to care for the Earth have called for 100 percent clean electricity by 2030, five years earlier than President Biden’s current target.
Trump tweets create confusion on GOP plan to avert shutdown; Ryan tries to calm Republicans
Trump tweets create confusion on GOP plan to avert shutdown; Ryan tries to calm Republicansby wpjljron
Thursday, January 18th, 2018.Trump tweets create confusion on GOP plan to avert shutdown; Ryan tries to calm RepublicansThe White House said Thursday that President Trump supports a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown, as eroding support for the measure among Senate Democrats and some Republicans increased the prospects of a closure. “The President supports the continuing resolution introduced in the House,” deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said in […]