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This post provides an overview of how health care coverage and access will and won’t change when the public health emergency ends on May 11, including a discussion of COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments, and telemedicine.
This brief provides an overview of the major health-related COVID-19 federal emergency declarations that have been made since early on in the pandemic, summarizes the flexibilities triggered by each, and identifies the implications for their ending, related to coverage, costs, and payment for COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines; Medicaid coverage and federal match rates; telehealth; access to medical countermeasures through FDA emergency use authorization (EUA); and other Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance flexibilities.
The brief provides a quick explainer of the prescription drug provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law on August 16, 2022 and presents new estimates on how many Medicare beneficiaries could be helped by those provisions.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes several provisions that will lower prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and reduce drug spending by the federal government. This brief summarizes these provisions and discusses the expected effects on people, program spending, and drug prices and innovation.
This brief provides an overview of Medicare spending and financing, based on the most recent historical and projected data from the Medicare Trustees and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The brief highlights trends in Medicare spending and key drivers of spending growth, including higher enrollment, growth in health care costs, and increases in payments to Medicare Advantage plans.
These FAQs review mental health and substance use disorder coverage and cost sharing in Medicare and discuss recent policy changes related to coverage of mental health and substance use disorder treatments.
This brief highlights four key changes related to Medicare enrollment and eligibility that are designed to minimize gaps in coverage ad improve access to care.
This data note examines the financial performance of the three largest for-profit hospital systems in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. All three health systems have had positive operating margins that have exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the majority of the pandemic, including in the third quarter of 2022.
The Medicare open enrollment period that runs from October 15 to December 7 each year is an opportunity for Medicare beneficiaries in traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage to evaluate their current coverage, compare plans, and decide whether to make a change for the coming year. Beneficiaries can compare Medicare Advantage plans, mainly HMOs and PPOs, which provide all Medicare-covered benefits, typically including Part D drug coverage, and may offer other benefits such as vision, dental,…
Nearly all enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans sponsored by the seven largest firms in the market are in a plan that offers some vision, hearing, fitness, and/or dental benefits. Other benefits, including over the counter, remote access technologies, meals, acupuncture and transportation, vary widely across firms, and in-home support services, bathroom safety, Part B rebates, telemonitoring and caregiver support are relatively uncommon
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