Public Policy Weekly Clips: April 20, 2016

April 20, 2016 · Paul Cotton

Today, NCQA gives a rundown of the best national, state and private sector health care articles from the week. Here are our picks for today’s Public Policy Weekly Clips.

National:

CMS announced the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative Plus to expand CPCI with more risk.

CMS released 2nd-year CPCI results showing better care but savings did not offset added costs.

The Health Care Transformation Task Force had 41% of payments value-based by 12/15 vs. 30% in 2014.

The share of Americans who say the ACA has had an impact rose by 19% from 2010 to 2014.

Legal immigrants, the poor & minorities saw the greatest coverage gains under the ACA.

Insurers predict large ACA premium hikes but HHS says rates rose just 8% after similar threats last year.

Medicare Advantage members had 10% fewer avoidable hospitalizations than did FFS beneficiaries.

USPSTF recommended daily low-dose aspirin for people at high risk for heart disease & colon cancer.

Nearly half of doctors are unsure of how to have end-of-life care planning talks with patients.

Prescription drug spending rose 8.5% to $425B with 2015 & specialty drug spend up 15%.

NFP organizations are offering independent & transparent assessments of drug value.

Outpatient chemotherapy costs are higher if oncologist work for a health system vs. independently.

Higher vitamin D levels are associated with a 67% lower invasive cancer risk in older women

Geisinger is offering refunds to patients who are not satisfied.

CareMore’s Sachin Jain will replace retiring Leeba Lessin as president.

State:

UnitedHealth is pulling its plans from 2017 Marketplaces in Arkansas, Georgia & Michigan.

Florida enacted a law to protect patients from surprise out-of-network medical bills

Ohio wants a waiver to give adult Medicaid enrollees modified HSAs & transitions to private coverage.

Oregon Medicaid could have saved by applying ACA medical loss ratio standards says the HHS IG.

Tennessee named Wendy Long to replace Darin Gordon as TennCare director

Vermont issued an RFP for Medicaid ACOs that will get prospective population-based payments.

Private:

Worker’s out-of-pocket costs rose faster than costs of covered benefits from 2004 to 2014.

Retiree health coverage dropped form 66% in 1988 to 23% in 2015.

Congress considers capping health care tax break for employers.

Targeted communications and transparency tools help employees identify best HDHP

Employers are seeing diagnostic procedure overuse declining.