Thoughts
Thought Leadership Posts
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Medicare Advantage’s Newfound Supplemental Benefit Flexibility
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently made a series of interrelated policy changes to give Medicare Advantage (MA) plans more flexibility than ever to offer additional services outside of traditional Medicare. Known as supplemental benefits, these services have historically included items like dental, vision, and hearing. By allowing plans to offer an even wider and more tailored array of services, CMS expects that plans will be better positioned to attract members and meet beneficiary needs.
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The Consumerization Of Health Care To Improve Value: Secretary Alex Azar’s “Radical” Vision
HHS Secretary Alex Azar recently laid out a four-part strategy to achieve a "radical" vision of reforming health care: giving consumers greater control over health information, encouraging price transparency, using experimental models in Medicare and Medicaid to drive value, and removing government burdens. While certain elements of the secretary’s strategy reflect important reforms, his recommendations raise questions about the desirability of a shift toward consumerization of health care and whether these changes are actually in the best interest of consumers....
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Creating Medicare Advantage Premium Support For All, Part 3: Provider Considerations
"In the first post of this series, I hypothesized that a Medicare-for-all approach that puts market-based principles at its core will have the most success not only in winning sturdy, bipartisan support but in actualizing high-quality universal coverage at lower cost. In Part 2, I explored modest benefit enhancements that would be needed to maintain the quality of coverage various populations have under existing programs, some of which were reiterated in the CAP proposal.
"In this post, I will examine what a Medicare Advantage (MA)-based universal coverage regime would mean for providers, who will continue to be the heart of our system and whose decisions affect the cost and quality of our care more than anyone else’s."...
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What Does Alex Azar’s Plan for Value-Based Care Really Mean?
New HHS Secretary Azar has articulated a four-point plan for value-based transformation of our health care system, but so far concrete details regarding the initiatives he will pursue are scarce. In this post, we break down the components of his plan and their potential implications for various health care stakeholders....
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The CHRONIC Care Act Passes Senate, Obstacles Remain
his post outlines the key components of the now adopted Chronic Care Act, assessed its outlook in the House, and considered what its progress may tell us about the prospect for more bipartisan action on health care in the future. ...
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Creating Medicare Advantage Premium Support for All, Part 2: Benefit Design
This is the second installment in my series examining the potential for a bipartisan Medicare-for-all approach that leverages competition among private payers and consumer choice via an advanceable tax credit....
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Breaking Down The MACRA Final Rule
On November 2, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule making changes to the 2018 Quality Payment Program (QPP) under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The QPP includes both the Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPS) and Advanced Payment Models (APMs). This post explains the key policies implemented in the final rule....
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The Health Implications of Tax Reform
This post breaks down the key components of 2017 Federal tax reform and its impact on the health care sector....
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State Waivers As A National Policy Lever: The Trump Administration, Work Requirements, And Other Potential Reforms In Medicaid
As states line up to avail themselves of new flexibilities in the section 1115 Medicaid wavier process, we thought it important to examine exactly what was approved in Kentucky and Indiana, and to survey the current landscape of pending proposals in search of what other reforms may be on the horizon....
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The Arduous Road to Renewal of CHIP Funding
After months of uncertainty, on January 22, 2018, Congress passed legislation renewing long-term federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Nearly nine million children and 370,000 pregnant women nationwide rely on the program for health coverage. This post examines the pathway renewal of the program took through considerable delays and political controversies....
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