CMS Releases 2022 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule On August 2, 2021, CMS published a final rule for the 2022 Calendar Year Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) The final rule, effective October 1, 2021, authorizes additional payments for diagnostics and therapies to treat COVID-19 during the current public health emergency, and beyond....

AMA House of Delegates Calls on Medicare Advantage to Align Prior Authorization Policies with Medicare Fee-for-Service   The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates issued a statement saying that Medicare Advantage plans shouldn’t override physician judgment. According to a resolution presented at the AMA Special Meeting, more than 62 million Americans are covered by...

CMS says 9.7 Million Americans were added to Medicaid rolls in 2020 Medicaid enrollment rose sharply during the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 10 million Americans joining the public health coverage program for the poor through January, a government report released Monday shows. Eighty million people—more than ever before in the program’s history—now carry Medicaid coverage, for which states...

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Latest Challenge to the Affordable Care Act On June 17, 2021, the Affordable Care Act survived a third major challenge as the Supreme Court, in a 7-to-2 vote, turned aside the latest effort by Republicans to kill the health care law. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who had cast the decisive vote...