What’s happening: On Dec. 16, California was approved for the large BH-CONNECT behavioral health demonstration project, which is estimated to bring $5 billion of new federal Medicaid dollars for California over the next five years.
What else to know: During this time, BH-CONNECT will use the funds to test new approaches to behavioral health treatment, housing, and workforce development.
What’s happening: The American Hospital Association (AHA) is asking hospitals to complete a survey by Jan. 10 to help it understand how a 340B rebate model would impact 340B member hospitals.
What else to know: Completing this 10-question survey will help AHA understand the financial, operational, and patient impacts that a rebate model — such as the one Johnson & Johnson sought to implement this year — would have on your hospital or health system.
What’s happening: CHA has issued a members-only summary of the proposed changes to Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D programs for contract year 2026.
What else to know: The summary, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., also includes proposals to codify existing sub-regulatory guidance in the MA Part C and Part D programs.
What’s happening: A summary of the finalized Increasing Organ Transplant Access Model is available for CHA members.
What else to know: The model will test whether performance-based incentive payments paid to or owed by participating kidney transplant hospitals increase access to kidney transplants for patients with end-stage renal disease.
What’s happening: CHA DataSuite has issued a hospital-specific analysis on quality program measure trends for the third quarter of 2024.
What else to know: The analysis provides hospitals a comparative review of the quality data collected over time by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and published on Care Compare.
What’s happening: CHA DataSuite has issued a hospital-specific analysis of calendar year (CY) 2025 Medicare outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) final rule.
What else to know: The analysis is intended to show providers how Medicare outpatient fee-for-service payments will change from CY 2024 to CY 2025 based on the policies set forth in the final rule.
What’s happening: Summaries of the calendar year (CY) 2025 outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and physician fee schedule final rules are available for CHA members.
What else to know: The rules are effective Jan. 1, 2025.
What’s happening: A bipartisan letter asking House leadership to prevent upcoming Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment cuts gathered 182 signatures — including 36 from the California delegation. CHA thanks hospital leaders for their outreach on this critical issue.
What else to know: Reductions in Medicaid DSH payments to states are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. If these cuts go into effect, California’s hospitals would lose $1.2 billion in 2025.
What’s happening: CHA DataSuite has issued a hospital-specific analysis of the calendar year (CY) 2025 Medicare home health (HH) prospective payment system final rule analysis.
What else to know: The analysis is intended to show HH providers how Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payments will change from CY 2024 to CY 2025 based on the policies set forth in the final rule. A detailed summary of the final rule is available for CHA members.
As 2024 begins to come to a close, CHA’s advocacy attention will be focused on advancing priorities in Washington, D.C. We’ll be pushing to ensure federal approval for two critical state issues while also focusing on some key federal issues likely in play in the lame duck session.