It is finally healthcare week in the 118th Congress. Congress has produced an agreement to fund six of the dozen outstanding appropriations bills and should avoid the partial government shutdown pending on Friday. To that...more
IT’S SHUTDOWN WEEK . . . AGAIN -
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. Congress returns to session this week, with precious little time to avert a looming partial government shutdown at midnight on Friday. After...more
2/27/2024
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Senate Committees ,
U.S. House
On January 9, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the New York State (NY) 1115 Medicaid waiver “Medicaid Redesign Team” (MRT). The MRT is a long-standing waiver in NY that has continuously...more
APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS MOVES FORWARD -
Over the weekend, negotiators in Congress agreed to certain spending allocations in order to fund various government agencies through most of the year. With both bodies in session...more
CONGRESS BUYS MORE TIME -
Last Friday President Biden signed a short-term funding patch. This extends government funding through a continuing resolution (CR) into March. Specifically, this CR gives Congress until March 1...more
The Senate is back in session today, and the House comes back tomorrow. The beginning of 2024 is looking a lot like the end of 2023, with the big factor being the need to address government funding for fiscal year (FY) 2024....more
1/9/2024
/ Billing ,
Congressional Committees ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
HELP ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Medicare ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
Price Transparency ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Senate Committees ,
U.S. House
Happy New Year! As we enter 2024, we want to lay out some of the main regulatory issues (both new and old) that McDermott+Consulting will be tracking over the next year. While these may evolve, we think they are still...more
1/4/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
CARES Act ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Laboratory Developed Tests ,
Managed Care Contracts ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
MIPS ,
No Surprises Act (NSA) ,
Physician Fee Schedule ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Telehealth ,
Telemedicine
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CONGRESS (BUT JUST FOR A WEEK)
Welcome to what should be the final legislative week of the calendar year.
The work that Congress does this week may provide insight into what will get...more
Two-Week Stretch Before Holiday Recess - Congress only has two weeks left in session for the rest of year. There is a lot to accomplish in those two weeks. While government funding has been punted into early 2024, Congress is...more
Limited Time Before the End of the Year and January 19 First, welcome back from what was hopefully a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving break. Although this year will not entail a year-end government funding package, we are...more
11/28/2023
/ Appropriations Bill ,
Congressional Committees ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Medicare ,
NDAA ,
New Legislation ,
Payment Systems ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements
It’s Thanksgiving week, so instead of eating eggs with your regs, you should sit back, relax and reflect on the regs you are thankful for as you eat your turkey legs (or whatever you enjoy on Thanksgiving). Many of the...more
11/21/2023
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Digital Health ,
Final Rules ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) ,
Medicare ,
Mental Health ,
New Legislation ,
New Regulations ,
No Surprises Act (NSA) ,
Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) ,
Physician Fee Schedule ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Telehealth
GOVERNMENT FUNDING EXPIRES SOON -
The government will run out of funding in 11 days, on November 17. The House will continue to work to advance annual appropriations bills this week. However, a continuing resolution (CR)...more
11/7/2023
/ Appropriations Bill ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Federal Funding ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) ,
Physician Fee Schedule ,
Section 340B ,
U.S. House
NEXT UP: SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON -
The House officially has a speaker: Mike Johnson (R-LA).
On October 25, Rep. Johnson became Speaker Johnson with a final vote on the first ballot of 220–209.
Speaker Johnson, a...more
The House of Representatives has now been without a speaker for 20 days. Last week, Rep. Jordan (R-OH) dropped out of the speaker race after an internal Republican Conference vote showed he had no path to victory. This week,...more
Speaker Race Impacts Healthcare Priorities We start this week as we did the last, with no speaker of the House. The House is scheduled to vote on Tuesday for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to be the speaker of the House. However, it...more
ALL EYES ON THE HOUSE -
The Senate is in its planned recess this week.
The House is in recess until notified.
With a successful motion to vacate the speaker on October 3, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is currently...more
What’s Next After Congress (Temporarily) Avoided a Shutdown?
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put a continuing resolution (CR) on the House floor that funds the government at current levels, extends key otherwise-expiring...more
Do We End the Week with a Shutdown?
That is the question of the week. We’ll know the answer in five days, but right now, “yes” is a far more plausible answer than “no.”
On the House side, Speaker McCarthy will first...more
9/26/2023
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Government Shutdown ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Senate Committees ,
U.S. House
This week the House returns from August recess, so both bodies of Congress will be here and working. There is a lot to accomplish prior to the September 30, 2023, deadline for Congress to act to fund the federal government....more
Today the Senate returns from August recess, while the House remains on recess until next week. We are prepared for a very busy final quarter of 2023.
The first order of business for Congress is to fund the federal...more
Heading into the August Recess -
This is the last week in session before Congress goes out for a six-week August recess. Before that, Congress is typically in a mad dash to advance bills. However, this year we are in a...more
Two Weeks Before August Recess
We are rapidly approaching the August recess, when both the House and Senate will be back home for an entire month. As a result, there is a mad dash to move legislation through the...more
Can House Republicans Find Unity?
Last week, 11 members from the Republican Freedom Caucus voted against a rule to proceed to several messaging bills on federal regulations and gas stoves. These 11 members voted against...more
Debt Limit Debate Continues -
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously announced that the government could run out of money to fund government operations “potentially as early as June 1” unless Congress acts to address...more