Last week, CMS released additional guidance regarding Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (MPPP) outreach and education. The MPPP, sometimes referred to as “smoothing,” was established in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and allows Medicare beneficiaries with Part D to opt into an alternative payment structure for their cost-sharing for covered Part […]
A new whitepaper from the Brookings Center on Health Policy draws on an array of data sources to identify opportunities to improve the mental health care landscape for older adults. The analysis focuses on the following observations: There are disparities in rates of mental illness, substance use disorder (SUD), and […]
The series, called “What’s at Stake,” explores various policy ideas and their potential impacts on major health care programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. Understanding how these reforms might affect coverage, care, and outcomes for older adults and people with disabilities is essential, as they may influence voting […]
Late last month, the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means advanced several bipartisan bills intended to reduce Medicare coverage and affordability barriers. While Medicare Rights applauds this important goal, we are concerned that several of the bills run counter to it. As outlined below, today we urged lawmakers to […]
On June 28, the Supreme Court overturned a longstanding doctrine known as “Chevron deference” that required federal courts to defer to reasonable federal agency interpretations of statutes that are silent or ambiguous. This standard allowed subject matter experts within federal agencies to make regulatory decisions about program and policy details, […]
This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule that would narrow Medicare’s definition of “custody” relating to jail or prison. We applaud this important step that would help formerly incarcerated people gain access to meaningful Medicare coverage. In general, when people are held in […]
