DCMedical News: Tuesday, September 13, 2022
DCMedical News is published every day both the House and the Senate are scheduled to be in session.
THE BIG STORY Tuesday, September 13, 2022
StopGap
CQ reports that “Lawmakers return to Washington this month to wrestle with a White House request for $47.1 billion in emergency supplemental funds and the need to pass a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown starting Oct. 1.” InsideHealthPolicy reports that “Stakeholders are watching to see whether health care riders will be added to the continuing resolution lawmakers are writing to keep the government open past the end of the month -- especially as programs including the Medicare Dependent Hospital program and the current version of the Low-Volume Hospital adjustment are set to expire at the end of the month. The administration is also pushing lawmakers to add COVID-19 vaccine money to the CR to delay commercialization of vaccines.”
Unhappy Times in Health Care, the Public
The Associated Press reports on a poll undertaken with the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (here) showing that a majority of adults in the U.S. say that health care is “not handled well in the country.” Fewer than half of Americans say it is “handled well,” and 12% says it is “handled extremely or very well.”
Unhappy Times in Health Care, Nurses
The largest nurses strike in the nation’s history (here) began Monday, as 15,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association walked out of Twin City hospitals.
DOCTORS, NURSES AND OTHER HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Doctors Not Happy, Either
CQ reports that “Provider groups are unhappy with CMS' proposed 4.5 percent reduction in the conversion factor, which is used to calculate billing codes into payment rates. The cut would lead to about $3 billion or $4 billion less in provider payments in 2023 . . . The cuts are intended to offset pay boosts for underpaid specialties like primary care and maternal health that CMS finalized in 2020. Since then, CMS has made cuts to other specialties to offset those payment increases because federal law requires the fee schedule be budget neutral. Congress has helped avert the cuts over the past two years by throwing billions more into the fee schedule, but it’s unclear what they'll do this year.”
HOSPITALS, NURSING HOMES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE FACILITIES
KaufmanHall Flash: Hospital Red Ink
The July report on June (second quarter, here) hospital financials shows cumulatively negative operating margins, with expenses at “historic highs.” The AHA, meanwhile, (here) believes that care deferred by the pandemic has produced higher acuity in hospital inpatients.
MEDICARE, MEDICAID AND COMMERCIAL HEALTH INSURANCE
National Uninsured Rates Reaches All Time Low
A report from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (here) notes that “The nation’s uninsured rate declined significantly in 2021 and early 2022, reaching an all-time low of 8.0 percent for U.S. residents of all ages in the first quarter (January-March) of 2022 . . . Uninsured rates among adults ages 18-64 declined from 14.5 percent in late 2020 to 11.8 percent in early 2022. The uninsured rate among children ages 0-17, which had increased during 2019 and 2020, fell from 6.4 percent in late 2020 to 3.7 percent in early 2022.”
READING & REFERENCES
Statista On Public and Private Expenditures on Health by Nation
The statistic gathering service displays (here) public and private expenditures per person by nation. The public expenditures alone in the U. S. dwarf the combined public and private expenditures of every other nation.
PUBLICATION SCHEDULE FOR DCMEDICAL NEWS
September 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30
October 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
November 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 29, 30
Notes to Fred Hyde, MD, JD, MBA, news@dcmedicalnews.org