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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that telehealth reimbursement rates will be reviewed and assessed after the COVID-19 pandemic to make telehealth expansion permanent. CMS Administrator Seema Verma stated in a blog post that telehealth services that were expanded and implemented during the pandemic may be made permanent. Read more at https://bit.ly/2OMSd8z

Due to massive job losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges could be adding over 1 million new enrollees. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused job losses across the country, with about 10% unemployment rates in almost all states, causing people to lose their health insurance coverage through their employer and can lead to these unemployed consumers to find healthcare insurance through the ACA exchanges. Read more at https://bit.ly/32hisw3

Last Thursday, the Trump Administration filed a legal brief to ask the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. The ACA was enacted during Obama’s Administration and is still standing in effect. The legal brief is subjecting the ACA to legal challenge, with the Trump Administration stating that the law’s individual coverage mandate are invalidates, which they believe should nullify the ACA law. Read more at https://bit.ly/3eKFgri

During this current COVID-19 pandemic, physician practices across the country are experiencing significant challenges that have sprung up quickly. Significant financial challenges have burdened many practices, with most reporting significant financial impacts on revenue and in patient volume. Read more at https://bit.ly/3eeB6b0

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released on Sunday a set of guidelines on how hospitals are allowed to reopen for non-emergent non-COVID-19 healthcare amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines show how hospitals can offer services for patients while at the same time being open to treating patients with COVID-19. Read more at https://bit.ly/3bw7d4m

In a survey from the National Association of ACOs, fifty six percent of risk-bearing ACOs stated that they are likely to drop out of the Medicare shared savings program. Most of these ACOs that are taking on downside risks are concerned that they may bear financial losses, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more at https://bit.ly/2KaybCK

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved funding to healthcare providers via the expansion of the Accelerated and Advance Payment Program. The funding totals near $34 billion and is given to the healthcare providers directly working with those affected by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. Read more at https://bit.ly/2VmWpyW

On Wednesday, the Senate passes a stimulus deal that would aid healthcare systems across the United States. The $2 trillion stimulus deal will include $100 billion to compensate for lost revenue and other expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more at https://bit.ly/3dyR67F

Two agencies from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the final rules for interoperability and information-blocking proposals. Interoperability, which means the ability of health information systems to work together within and across organizational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of healthcare, has been a main topic in the healthcare industry, as these rules will determine how providers, insurers and patients interchange health data. Read more at https://bit.ly/3cRJrRC

The Trump Administration is proposing a policy that will also patient medical records to be accessible to patients. The policy will give patients access to their personal medical records easily on smartphone devices and apps. Although this may sound transparent and beneficial for patients, the flow of information will no longer be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which protects patient information. Read more at https://bit.ly/2T2BkZb

On Thursday, judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit raised their concerns that insurers were overly compensated from the subsidies received from the government is giving them, which were given due to the losses from cost-sharing reduction payments. Read more at https://bit.ly/2Teagbc

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are pushing to change Stark law statutes to facilitate providers to be in value-based contracts without the concern of being blamed for kickbacks. The Stark law, which is the anti-kickback and self-referral laws, aid more value-based payments and coordinated care, while preventing physicians from benefiting and profiting from self-referrals. Read more at https://bit.ly/2SP9a5u

After months of debate over surprise billing and how to protect patients from out-of-network charges, lawmakers were not able to come to a compromise on the surprise billing proposal, failing to get the bill included in the 2019 year-end spending deal. The spending deal was an opportunity for the surprise billing legislation to be passed. Read more at https://bit.ly/2Sxw4yi