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HMA Conference on Trends in Publicly Sponsored Healthcare

HMA Conference 2020

What’s Next for Medicaid, Medicare, and Publicly Sponsored Healthcare:
How Payers, Providers, and States Are Navigating a Future of Opportunity and Uncertainty

Pre-Conference Workshop: October 25
Conference: October 26-27
Location: Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park

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Medicare FY 2021 Hospital Inpatient Proposed Rule, Federal Flexibilities for COVID-19

This week, our In Focus section reviews recent announcements and actions by Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that have significant financial and operational implications for the hospital industry. This brief begins with the most recent of these actions by providing a summary of the key provisions of the CMS Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) Proposed Rule (CMS-1735-P), which includes Medicare payment updates and policy changes for the upcoming FY, with a comment deadline of July 10, 2020.  Although somewhat limited in scope compared to previous proposals, this year’s proposed rule includes several disruptive proposals that the hospital industry should carefully consider.

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Medicaid Managed Care Spending in 2019

This week, our In Focus section reviews Medicaid spending data collected in the annual CMS-64 Medicaid expenditure report. After submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), we have received a draft version of the CMS-64 report that is based on preliminary estimates of Medicaid spending by state for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019. We expect the final version of the report will be completed by the end of 2020 and posted to the CMS website at that time. Based on the preliminary estimates, Medicaid expenditures on medical services across all 50 states and six territories in FFY 2019 exceeded $594 billion, with over half of all spending now flowing through Medicaid managed care programs. In addition, total Medicaid spending on administrative services was $29.5 billion, bringing total program expenditures to $623.5 billion.

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50-State Survey of Medicaid Pharmacy Directors

This week, our In Focus section reviews key takeaways from the report, How State Medicaid Programs are Managing Prescription Drug Costs: Results from a State Medicaid Pharmacy Survey for State Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020, prepared by Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and Health Management Associates (HMA). The report was written by HMA Managing Principal Anne Winter and Principals Kathleen Gifford and Linda Wiant with Rachel Dolan, Marina Tian, and Rachel Garfield from KFF.

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