Policy Updates

Medicare will cover up to eight at-home COVID-19 tests for beneficiaries beginning in early spring, CMS announced Feb. 3. 

States are anticipating that the federal government will end the COVID-19 public health emergency sometime in 2022, which would require them to potentially unenroll upwards of 15 million people from Medicaid programs, according to Politico. 

UnitedHealthcare has reprocessed 1.6 million COVID-19 vaccination claims that shortchanged providers, according to a Jan. 20 congressional report from Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Payers including Anthem, Cigna and CVS Health contributed to a pool of nearly $300,000 in donations to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., following his swing vote blocking President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better spending package, according to CNBC. 

The American Medical Association is calling on members of Congress to act on "repeated failures" of health insurers to comply with substance use and mental health parity regulations over the past 15 years. 

Lawmakers did not vote by its Jan. 31 deadline on a California Assembly bill that would establish universal healthcare in the state, killing the bill, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Nearly 350 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives cosigned a letter to CMS stating their support for Medicare Advantage as the program continues to grow. 

Both America's Health Insurance Plans and the American Hospital Association submitted comments to HHS and CMS on the agencies' 2023 benefit and payment parameters. 

The California Assembly is poised to vote on a bill Jan. 31 that aims to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state — the bill's first major battle since a funding proposal for the program was introduced Jan. 6…

A panel of three judges ruled against HHS in a move that will allow Medicare beneficiaries to appeal nursing home coverage decisions if they transitioned from inpatient care to outpatient observation, according to Kaiser Health News.