CMS won't say how many could lose coverage from Trump's budget bill despite dismissing CBO estimates Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) chief of staff and Deputy Administrator Stephanie Carlton says the agency hasn’t produced internal projections of how many people could lose healt | The ...

CMS won't say how many could lose coverage from Trump's budget bill despite dismissing CBO estimates www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/cms-w...

Catholic health systems warn of program closures, higher premiums if Medicaid cuts pass Cutting funds to Medicaid will have a significant impact on people's access to care, a group of Catholic, nonprofit health systems said this week.  | In a briefing held by the Catholic Health Associat...

And hospitals are warning Medicaid cuts will be devastating and lead to closures

“Further cuts to Medicaid funding will create more economic chaos, because employers will not accept additional burdens for government responsibility."

Trump budget bill would modernize HSAs, incentivize shift to rebranded ICHRAs Not to be lost within a sprawling Republican-backed budget bill are new flexibilities designed to increase usage of heath savings accounts (HSAs), individual coverage health reimbursement arrangeme | ...

But there is optimism surrounding the legislations' plan to revamp HSAs, HDHPs and direct primary care arrangements.

ICHRAs would also get rebranded and see changes the industry supports.

Reconciliation bill would ban enforcement of state AI laws for 10 years On Sunday night, House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee released their policy plan for achieving President Donald Trump’s policy goals, a proposal that would reduce federa | Congress' ...

State bans from enforcing AI laws or regulations?

Included.

"This potential surge of contradictory and overlapping policy proposals would quash small business AI innovation, most of which poses minimal risk."

Will Trump's tax bill cut Medicare by $490B? Not exactly Before the House passed a President Donald Trum | The Congressional Budget Office correctly stated Trump's tax bill would force cuts to Medicare. Budget analysts are tempering concerns, as the relevan...

The Congressional Budget Office said this week the bill would trigger automatic Medicare cuts. Technically true, but unlikely to happen.

"I consider this a nothingburger," one analyst said.

How the Medicaid reconciliation bill could help wither away the Affordable Care Act Understandably, the legislation plodding through Congress is most closely associated with reductions in Medicaid spending, but there is new scrutiny on how the megabill could impact the state of th | ...

Much of the focus is on Medicaid, but don't forget about the impact to the Affordable Care Act.

“Proportionally, that’s a much bigger enrollment and coverage loss than projected for Medicaid."

House GOP advances budget megabill, imposing stricter Medicaid work requirements At long last, the “one big, beautiful bill” has passed through the House of Representatives, sending an all-encompassing reconciliation package to the Senate. | The latest version of the bill would se...

Today, the House advanced the reconciliation bill and there is a lot to unpack. Fierce Healthcare has been unpacking the bill for weeks.

First, the latest version of the bill makes work requirements start sooner.

A spokesperson confirmed the decision to me this afternoon, following speculation and reporting from others news outlets that the service could soon be eliminated.

Feds shutting down texting service platform Notify.gov for Medicaid benefits The government is discontinuing a text messaging platform designed to mass distribute reminders about Medicaid benefits and other programs, the General Services Administration (GSA) confirmed to Fi | ...

NEW to Fierce Healthcare: Rollout of a text messaging platform designed to mass distribute reminders about Medicaid benefits and eligibility requirements to beneficiaries will now be discontinued.

HHS closes six regional offices serving 32 states and territories Updated: Wednesday, March 12 at 11:03 a.m. ET | The Office of the General Counsel announced a consolidation of regional offices, one week after scrubbing a list of non-core federal properties for sale...

HHS closes 6 (of 10) regional offices serving 32 states and territories. Reporting from @noahtong.bsky.social and Dave Muoio.
www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/f...

The story has a lot of interesting nuggets, including quotes from an interview with former HHS Secretary Tom Price.

I'm sincerely grateful to these employees for being willing to share their stories with me—on the record or anonymously—and opening up during a really tough week.

We obtained recordings of supervisors warning their employees they might have to work in the hallway because of a RTO mandate. Emails shared showed requirements to remove DEI language from websites and trainings, all while receiving a barrage of messages urging them to take a buyout offer.

Fired HHS civil servants, veterans fear for the future of US healthcare This month, the federal government fired thousands of probationary federal workers spanning critical health agencies and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), taking a chainsaw to the workforce | T...

🧵I spoke with more than a dozen government workers to better understand how they think mass firings at HHS and the VA will impact those agencies.

They warned of the long-term implications of icing out subject matter experts regulating AI and preventing the spread of infectious disease, and more.

Mass firings at HHS: FDA rescinds termination for 'hundreds' of probationary workers Editor's Note: This is a developing story. If you are a dismissed or active federal worker with information to share, please reach out at ntong@questex.com. | The federal government is firing thousand...

Saturday morning scoop: The FDA called fired probationary workers Friday night urging them to return to their old roles, four people with knowledge of the situation told Fierce Healthcare.

There are similar stories now surfacing on Reddit.

Hello. I am a healthcare reporter covering the HHS firings. If you’d like to share your story (on or off the record), my email is ntong@questex.com and I can be reached on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, at ntong.49

Trump admin orders 'temporary pause' on most federal financial assistance The Trump administration has ordered a “temporary pause” on federal financial assistance that will go into effect at 5:00 p.m. | Chief among the questions raised by Monday's ambiguous memo are whether...

❗If you somehow haven't heard already, a big healthcare story is unfolding. Potential to impact millions of people and heavily relied upon federal programs. One lawsuit already filed by the American Public Health Association.

The ASA president got the sense the policy was going to be tested in the initial three states before implemented nationwide.

I spoke to the American Society of Anesthesiologists this afternoon to get their thoughts on the plan. A few hours later, an Elevance Health spokesperson confirmed the policy is now withdrawn.

Anthem faces backlash from new anesthesia policy, reverses course in all states A recent decision from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in three states to stop paying for anesthesia care in select circumstances has drawn widespread scorn from anesthesiologists and patients. | Anthem...

Story is here:

🧵Just one day after facing viral fallout over a new policy that would've restricted anesthesia care payments to providers in three states, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is no longer following through with the plan.

Sweeping nonprofit House bill passes, healthcare groups turn attention to Senate Legislation that gives a president wide-reaching power to financially harm any nonprofit an administration deems as terrorist supporting passed out of the House of Representatives Nov. 21. | H.R. 9495...

ICYMI: An under-the-radar bill passed in the House on Thursday. It has potentially huge ramifications for #nonprofits. In #healthcare, some groups are sounding the alarm.

“A sixth grader would know this is unconstitutional," said Rep. Jamie Raskin.

#plannedparenthood #trump

TV personality and surgeon Dr. Oz nominated to run Medicare, Medicaid President-elect Donald Trump has nominated television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, to run the federal agency administrating Medicare and Medicaid. | Yes, really. TV personality a...

Trump has nominated Dr. Oz to run CMS, one of the most important agencies for health policy. It oversees Medicare, Medicaid and plans in the ACA.

#trump #oz

@noahhurowitz.bsky.social has led the way on this story.

Dems increasingly fear the bill allows Trump to punish groups like Planned Parenthood (ppfa.bsky.social) as a "terrorist supporting" org.

“You're giving someone the power to crush dissenting groups without any real due process,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel to the ACLU.

Planned Parenthood, nonprofits condemn executive power granted in looming House bill National healthcare groups have signed on in opposition to a House bill that would soon grant President Donald Trump the ability to undermine nonprofits and remove their tax-exempt status, civil li | ...

A House committee today is attempting to push controversial legislation in the lame duck.

Lawmakers will vote on a bill that gives any presidential administration the power to unilaterally remove a nonprofit's tax-exempt status.

#reproductive #rights #nonprofits