The Senate Finance Committee will hold confirmation hearings for CMS Administrator-nominee Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and Deputy HHS Secretary-nominee Andrea Palm on April 15, months after the Biden White House announced the appointments and as Democrats gear up for a potentially major health care overhaul. The White House announced it nominated Palm as deputy HHS secretary on Jan. 19 and Brooks-LaSure a month later. If confirmed, Brooks-LaSure would be the first Black woman to lead the agency. Brooks-LaSure has extensive experience with...
CMS proposes to increase skilled nursing facility’s pay a net 1.3%, or $444 million, in fiscal 2022, and to add two new quality reporting measures in fiscal year 2023: vaccination rates among health care personnel staff and health care acquired infections. The proposed prospective system rule out Thursday (April 8) also asks for input on including health equity efforts in the reporting. The focus on vaccination rates and health equity is becoming a trend in proposed prospective payment system rules...
Overline:
Continuing a trend seen in other prospective payment rules released this week . . .
While CMS limited its annual hospice payment policies last year to essential policies due to the pandemic, the agency recommends a slew of changes in its proposed fiscal year 2022 hospice pay policies: make a COVID-19 waiver permanent, make several changes to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program and revise the labor shares. CMS’ proposal released Thursday (April 8) would increase payments in fiscal 2022 by 2.3%, or $530 million, but like last year, providers not meeting the quality reporting requirements...
