CMS has finalized the rule for the second year of Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act’s (MACRA) Quality Payment Program (QPP), raising the low-volume threshold for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) but not allowing clinicians the option to participate if they don’t meet the minimum requirements.

CMS released its final hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) rule for 2018, which included a significant cut to drug payments to hospitals which use the 340B drug discount program. The result was the quick threat of a lawsuit from three major medical groups.

The top Democrats on the Senate’s finance and health committees have outlined 51 criteria for judging President Donald Trump’s next nominee to run HHS, with many of their priorities going against the policies touted by Trump and former HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD.

While supporters of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were able to keep the law from being repealed and replaced in 2017, helping people sign up for coverage while the Trump administration has made deep cuts to enrollment efforts will be more difficult.

The commission on combating opioid addiction and abuse set up by President Donald Trump will issue its final recommendations on Nov. 1, with a draft copy laying out policies that could affect everything from patient surveys to reimbursement for addiction treatment.

The definition of “essential health benefits” which Affordable Care Act-compliant health plans have to cover would be up for states to decide under a rule proposed by CMS, echoing similar provisions which had been included in Republican legislative efforts to repeal and replace the ACA.

Federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired at the end of September, and with no quick renewal expected from Congress, states are on their own to keep the program afloat. According to a report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, six states won’t be able to do so past early January.

President Donald Trump followed through on a months-old promise to declare a national public health emergency on the opioid addiction epidemic, which could increase access to addiction treatment and additional training for physicians prescribing opioids.