Health Care Reform Update - July 9, 2012

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (the ACA)

On July 2nd the Kaiser Family Foundation released a poll finding that 56 percent of Americans would like to see the ACA's opponents stop their efforts to block its implementation and move on to other national issues. The findings can be found here.

Other HHS and Federal Regulatory Initiatives

On July 2nd the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that would update payment policies and rates under the End-Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System. The proposed rule can be found here. The CMS press release can be viewed here.

On July 2nd the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was awarding more than $971 million under two major emergency preparedness programs. The grants include $352 million awarded under the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP), which provides funding to help hospitals increase preparedness for public health emergencies, and $619 million awarded under the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement, which provides funding to public health departments. An HHS news release can be found here. More information about the HPP can be found here. More information about PHEP can be found here.

On July 3rd the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a proposed rule requiring that most medical devices sold in the United States carry a unique device identifier. An FDA statement can be seen here. The proposed rule can be seen here.

On July 5th HHS auditors released a "comprehensive audit protocol" that lays out the requirements that will be examined when conducting the HIPAA privacy and security audits mandated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The audit protocol can be seen here.

On July 6th CMS released proposed changes to payment regulations in several areas, including a potential $20 million cut to payments for home health services. The proposed changes to payments for home health services can be found here.

On July 6th CMS issued a proposed rule that would increase payments to family physicians by approximately 7 percent and other practitioners providing primary care services between 3 and 5 percent. The increase in payment to family practitioners is part of the proposed rule that would update payment policies and rates under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for calendar year (CY) 2013. The press release can be viewed here. The proposed rule can be found here.

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