Optimizing Costs and Powering Better Population Health with the Cloud
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Health and human services agencies continue to amass large amounts of data, from information on utilization rates and program costs to data on provider and facility performance.
April 21, 2021 • Health and human services agencies continue to amass large amounts of data, from information on utilization rates and program costs to data on provider and facility performance.
Making sense of all this data is key for these agencies to improve care quality and better manage costs for state programs, which means they need partners with proven health solutions and deep healthcare expertise.
The implications for Texas of CMS’s rescission of its Medicaid waiver extension DJ Wilson | Apr 19, 2021
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Last week’s news that the Biden administration was rescinding the 1115 waiver extension the Trump administration had granted Texas was felt from California to Florida, and certainly throughout the Lone Star State.
Austin was buzzing with the implications for the state, a reality that only began to settle in on Monday as staff at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) were able to make sense of the 669-page transmission.
Here is an excerpt from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announcement on Friday:
By Connor Semelsberger | April 19, 2021 | 5:21pm EDT
Joe Biden gives a campaign speech. (Photo credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
As the old adage goes, personnel is policy. Nearing his 100
th day in office, President Biden has made it abundantly clear that he plans to implement a radically liberal social agenda in America, demonstrated by who he s nominated to run the federal government.
Biden has already filled his entire cabinet faster than both Presidents Trump and Obama did before him. He accomplished this despite his nominees being, arguably, the most pro-abortion in history, and working with a 50-50 Senate in which Democrats had little to no room for error. While some Republicans stood up admirably to Biden s extreme, unqualified nominees, too many of them failed to raise legitimate opposition. Indeed, many voted to confirm these nominees, providing Biden s nominees with more bipartisan support than President Trump s received.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last week its decision to rescind Texas’s Medicaid 1115 waiver, citing insufficient reasoning for exempting the state from the waiver’s required public comment period.
In explaining its decision, CMS cited a letter it received late last year from three stakeholder organizations urging the department to reconsider exempting Texas from the public comment period.
The three organizations are the Children’s Defense Fund, Every Texan (formerly the Center for Public Policy Priorities) and Texans Care for Children.
State of Reform obtained the original letter protesting the decision, sent to CMS on Dec. 28, 2021. The three organizations voiced their “serious concern” about the exemption’s impact on Texans and urged the department to reconsider. This letter was sent after CMS accepted Texas’s request to be exempt from public comment, but before the department actually renewed the waiver.
04/20/21
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released an updated
PDF version) for RREs to use as part of their efforts to obtain certain data points, including a claimant s social security number or Medicare number, to assist in determining his or her Medicare beneficiary status. While CMS does not require RREs to use this Model Language document, in practice, many RREs utilize this document as part of their Section 111 data collection activities. CMS s revised Model Language document dated March 10, 2021 updates the agency s prior version dated April 30, 2018. Overall, the updated Model Language document make various minor and non-substantive changes to the previous version.