The House Budget Committee on Wednesday voted 22-17 along party lines to approve a $2.8 trillion fiscal year 2007 budget resolution that does not call for mandatory spending reductions to Medicare or Medicaid, CQ Today reports. President Bush in his budget proposal last month outlined $65 billion in spending reductions from Medicare and other...
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Archive for March, 2006
Capitol Hill Watch | House Budget Committee Approves FY 2007 Budget Plan Without Medicare, Medicaid Cuts
Health Plans Don’t Fear 2007 Medicare Advantage Rates, See Positive Long Term
CMS is expected to issue final 2007 Medicare Advantage (MA) payment rates April 3. But some established Medicare managed care organizations aren’t holding their breath: They anticipate satisfactory reimbursement for next year’s MA product lines…. Visit AISHealth to read the entire story.
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CMS Takes Steps To Clean Up Enrollment
Last week CMS notified Medicare prescription drug plan sponsors of the process for reconciling plan enrollments to ensure that all beneficiaries who have elected to change plans are appropriately disenrolled from their initial plan by April 30, 2006. To ensure that all enrolled beneficiaries would have access to prescription drug coverage in the early...
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DEADLINE: PDPs, MA-PDs, Cost, and PACE 2007 Applications
Today is the deadline for all PDPs, MA-PDs, Cost, and PACE 2007 applications. Details on the CMS website.
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Market Responce: Get the Word Out Tours
Private providers are hoping to clear up the confusion over the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan with road trips to enroll new members and by offering information to consumers about competing plans. Representatives for Humana, one such provider, will answer questions for the public from its “Let’s Talk” tour bus, which will be at...
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Bush Says He Opposes Extending Deadline for Medicare Enrollment
Bloomberg is reporting, President George W. Bush said he opposes extending the deadline to sign up for a new Medicare prescription drug benefit even though some of the people who are eligible may be confused about the program.
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Surprise CMS Move Will Cost Hospitals for Multiple Push Injections of Same Drug
AISHealth and the 3/6/06 Report on Medicare Compliance are reporting Hospitals are about to lose money for intravenous push injections because of a surprise move by CMS, experts say. CMS said recently that hospitals can’t charge Medicare for more than one IV push injection of the same drug during the same patient encounter (HCPCS...
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MMA 2003 Update
The Medicare Modernization Update (MMU) was updated on Wednesday, March 1, 2006. For your convenience, we offer the following topics and links that this office maintains. Please update your bookmarks and favorites accordingly. Subject area on the web site Link Medicare Modernization Update (MMU) http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MMAUpdate/ Quarterly Provider Update (QPU) http://www.cms.hhs.gov/QuarterlyProviderUpdates/ CMS Manuals http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Manuals/IOM/list.asp CMS...
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