Texas Insight Reports
- HHSC: Early Childhood Intervention Advisory Committee: The ECI Advisory Committee met January 10th in their quarterly meeting and voted out their annual performance report. The report had a few areas where targets were not achieved.
- HHSC: Proposed Medicaid Payment Rates for the Residential Care Program, Assisted Living Services, and Personal Care 3 Services: The HHSC held a public hearing to take comment on new rate proposals related to primary care and assisted living.
- Texas Medicaid 1115 Waiver Extension Awarded December 2017: On December 21, 2017, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a letter to Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Charles Smith announcing their approval of a Texas 1115 Medicaid Waiver effective January 1, 2018, through September 30, 2022. The waiver is also known as The Texas Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program.
- HHSC: Combined Rate Hearing for Levulan Kerastick (J7308) & 2018 HCPCS: The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) conducted a public hearing to receive public comment on the proposed Medicaid payment rate for Levulan Kerastick (J7308). In addition, HHSC held a hearing on proposed Medicaid payment rates for the 2018 Annual Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Updates.
Texas News
Texas Takes Early Steps to Repair or Replace its Aged Mental Hospitals: Texas Health and Human Services officials announced Monday that they are receiving $47.7 million to begin needed construction for existing state hospitals, some of which are more than a century old.
Flu patients leave Texas hospitals strapped: Widespread flu activity has left hospitals overwhelmed with patients. But high emergency room volumes and filled hospital beds are “not uncommon” for this point during flu season, state officials said.
Federal Healthcare News
- Trump Administration Will Let States Require People to Work for Medicaid: The Trump administration is encouraging states to require “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients to work or volunteer in order to keep their health insurance coverage.
- GOP Chairman eyes floor action for CHIP next week: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden(R-Ore.) said on Thursday that he is aiming to bring a six-year reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to the floor next week.
- Trump Officials, After Rejecting Obama Medicare Model, Adopt One Like It: The Trump administration said late Tuesday that it was starting a Medicare payment model very similar to the ones it canceled and curtailed last year. The Obama administration devised the earlier projects using authority in the Affordable Care Act.
- Scramble Is on To Care For Kids If Insurance Coverage Lapses: The months-long failure on Capitol Hill to pass a long-term extension to CHIP, which provides health coverage to 9 million lower-income children, portends serious health consequences for many of them. About 1.7 million children in 20 states and the District of Columbia could be at risk of losing their CHIP coverage in February because of the funding shortfall, according to a report released Wednesdayby the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
- Health Insurer Centene Is Sued Over Lack of Medical Coverage: People who bought policies from Centene, a large for-profit health insurance company, filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday claiming the company does not provide adequate access to doctors in 15 states.