April 21, 2025
Medicaid Provider Tax Proposal: Too Little Info to Appropriately Size Threat [UHS, ARDT, MOH, CNC, ACHC, ENSG]
Today’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posting that it is reviewing a proposed CMS regulation about appropriate use of Medicaid provider taxes offers too little information to appropriately size the threat to hospitals (UHS,…
April 16, 2025
Trump Biopharma EO: Laying the Groundwork for Additional Hospital Reconciliation Targets [municipal-backed, HCA, THC, CYH, ARDT, UHS]
President Trump’s executive order (EO) on biopharma yesterday suggests the hospital sector is a larger target than administration officials have let on to date and seems to proffer more substance about additional ways to garner…
April 13, 2025
Vanilla Medicare Inpatient Provider Proposals [HCA, THC, ARDT, EHC, SEM, CHE, ADUS, ENSG, PACS, UHS, ACHC]
Medicare’s proposed FY26 payment regulations for inpatient hospitals [HCA, THC, CYH, ARDT, UHS, MPW, municipal bond-backed facilities], inpatient rehab facilities (IRFs) [EHC, SEM], hospices [CHE, ADUS, Gentiva], long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) [SEM, Kindred], skilled nursing…
April 3, 2025
Senate Budget Resolution & Healthcare Offsets
In response to yesterday’s Senate budget resolution proposal and the GOP’s assumption of the current policy baseline for scoring purposes, we think Congress continues to target Medicaid, Medicare hospital site neutrality, and PBM reforms as…
March 5, 2025
Diving Deeper on Outlook for Hospital-Targeted Medicaid Reforms [ARDT, CYH, HCA, THC, UHS, municipal-backed hospitals]
We do not see any let-up any time soon on policy-related headwinds confronting hospitals [ARDT, CYH, HCA, THC, UHS, municipal-backed systems] as Congress hunts for palatable reconciliation savings. While many of the circulated Medicaid ideas,…
February 23, 2025
Medicaid Reform Watch: Still Early On – What to Watch for [CNC, MOH, ARDT, CYH, ENSG, ADUS]
As the budget resolution process and subsequent reconciliation strategy unfolds, Medicaid reforms that have posed headline enrollment and payment risk to Medicaid insurers [CNC, MOH, ELV], dual eligible insurers [UNH, HUM, ELV, CVS],hospitals [ARDT, CYH,…
February 10, 2025
Sizing Medicaid Work Requirement Risks [CNC, MOH, ELV, THC, ARDT, ENS, ADUS]
As we await the House’s budget reconciliation strategy this week, the Senate FY25 budget resolution proposal released late Friday bolsters our expectations for Medicaid work requirements, which we see as one the most likely Medicaid-related…
January 28, 2025
[CNC, MOH, ARDT, UHS, ENSG, ADUS]: Medicaid Funding & Best Bet on OMB Funding Memo
We lean against yesterday’s OMB directive for temporarily pausing federal funding for grants, loans and programs applying largely to Medicaid’s payments to the states for Medicaid insurers (CNC, MOH, ELV, UNH, CVS) or for reimbursements…
January 22, 2025
[OSCR, CNC, HCA, THC, WELL] Optimistic on ACA Subsidies, But Watching Other Risks
While investors in insurers and providers seem most concerned about the fate of the expiring enhanced ACA subsidies, which we still expect to be revised but ultimately extended later this year, other – albeit smaller…
January 17, 2025
MedPAC Provider Recs Likely to Be Ignored in Favor of Savings Targets Like Site Neutrality, Medicaid, Rule Repeals
We doubt Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) FY/CY26 Medicare payment recommendations for home health agencies, inpatient rehab facilities, skilled nursing facilities, hospices, dialysis centers, hospitals, and physician offices, which were voted on Thursday in nearly…