In the past couple weeks, there have been significant developments in the healthcare legal sphere. One federal district court invalidated the administration’s approval of waivers that would have permitted Kentucky and Arkansas to establish Medicaid work requirements....

House-Passed Medicaid Bill Includes ACE Kids Act; Additional MFP Funds On March 25, the House passed the Medicaid Services Investment and Accountability Act of 2019 (H.R.1839). The bill, which has been transmitted to the Senate, includes an updated version of the ACE...

New Guidance on HCBS Settings Rule As explained in a March 22 press release, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued updated guidance to State Medicaid Directors on implementation of the 2014 Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) regulation....

From the TRICARE Benefits Updates: Your Environment and Your Body: How Exposure to Mold and Lead May Impact Your Health (4/1/19) Who You See for Care Matters: TRICARE Provider Types (3/29/29) Bring Your Tricare Benefit Questions to April 4 Webinar (3/26/29) – See...

From the Agencies: From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) - A new mobile app for smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers to help patients prepare for medical visits. The AHRQ Question Builder app - available at no charge from iTunes and Google...

YOUR INPUT SOUGHT Survey to Improve Caregiver Hospital Experience The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is analyzing the hospital visitor experience. If you are someone in the United States that has either visited a loved one in a hospital OR identifies as a...

Identifying and Serving Children with Health Complexity: Spotlight on Pediatric Care Together Thursday, March 14, 1:30-2:30 pm ET Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health The webinar will be a discussion about the report, Identifying and Serving Children with...

President’s Budget Proposal On Monday, March 11, the president released his budget proposal for FY 2020, which begins on October 1, 2019. Among other things, his budget proposes to turn Medicaid into a state block grant, and mandate that states establish work...

Medical Expense Deduction On March 4, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), Finance Committee Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, introduced the Tax Extender and Disaster Relief Act of 2019 (S. 617). The bill would extend, for an additional two...

Medicaid Waivers Several states (MS, OK, SD, TN) have requested Medicaid waivers to establish “community engagement” (work, school) requirements on extremely low-income parents/caretakers of children on Medicaid. On March 6, over 50 healthcare organizations sent a...