Payer

CMS' Value-Based Insurance Design program for Medicare Advantage plans is growing for 2023, expanding to 52 participating organizations, the agency said Sept. 29. 

A group of senators is asking CMS to clarify whether Medicaid funds can be used to pay for crisis stabilization in facilities with more than 16 beds.

The first drugs negotiated by Medicare are likely to be blood thinners, diabetes treatments and cancer drugs, physicians predicted in a Sept. 30 article for Health Affairs.

Centene and Florida Blue are among the largest donors to Florida's disaster fund support recovery from Hurricane Ian, according to a news release from the state's first lady, Casey DeSantis. 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is delaying the implementation of its Medicaid managed care behavioral health and intellectual/developmental disabilities tailored plans until April 1. 

Medicare Advantage premiums will decrease for 2023, CMS said Sept. 29, continuing a trend in slight cost reductions for next year across Medicare services. 

Medicaid beneficiaries say communicating with the agency is difficult, and the reapplication process is confusing and cumbersome. 

Health consumer engagement company Icario is launching a Medicaid redetermination service, designed at streamlining the re-enrollment process with many Medicaid beneficiaries set to lose coverage when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. 

A new master's program at the Fayetteville-based University of Arkansas has been named after former Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Robert Shoptaw. 

Forty-three percent of working adults in the U.S. are inadequately insured, according to a Sept. 29 Commonwealth Fund report.