Now that the Tri-agencies have drawn back the curtains to reveal some of the inner workings of their developing Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) comparative analysis enforcement efforts, the question is: What’s next?
Continue Reading Mental Health Parity: What’s Next for Plans and Issuers?
2022 MHPAEA Annual Report Illuminates Tri-agency Review and Enforcement Priorities in a Post-Consolidated Appropriations Act World
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and the Treasury (the “Tri-agencies”) released their 2022 annual report to Congress on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”) on Tuesday, January 25. The Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) released an FY 2021 MHPAEA Enforcement Fact Sheet alongside the annual report. Together, the Tri-agencies’ report and EBSA fact sheet provide additional, important information for group health plans and health insurance issuers looking to comply with the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act’s (“CAA”) non-quantitative treatment limitation (“NQTL”) comparative analysis requirements. But plans and issuers need additional agency guidance.
Continue Reading 2022 MHPAEA Annual Report Illuminates Tri-agency Review and Enforcement Priorities in a Post-Consolidated Appropriations Act World
HHS Finalizes Health Plan Price Transparency Rule
On October 29, 2020, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury (“the Departments”) issued a final rule requiring private-sector health insurers and self-insured health plans to disclose treatment prices and cost-sharing information with consumers. The Transparency in Coverage rule comes in response to President Trump’s executive order aiming to increase transparency in the healthcare industry. It is slated to become effective on January 11, 2021.
The final rule contains three main parts: (1) requirements for plans and issuers to disclose estimated costs associated with covered items or services furnished by a particular provider; (2) requirements for plans and issuers to publicly disclose reimbursement rates; and (3) amendments to the medical loss ratio program rules to allow issuers to receive credit for enrollees’ savings. Each part is discussed below.
Estimated Costs
First, insurers and employer-sponsored health plans will be required to provide price estimates, including in-network and out-of-network negotiated rates, for health care items and services upon request. The regulation requires these estimates beginning in 2023 for the 500 most “shoppable” items and services on an internet-based self-service tool (and in paper form, if requested by the participant, beneficiary, or enrollee). Among the 500 “shoppable services” are mammograms, physician visits, colonoscopies, and various blood tests, biopsies, and X-rays, and the full list is specified in the regulations. Then, beginning in 2024, price estimates for all remaining items and services offered, including procedures, drugs, durable medical equipment, must be disclosed. The price transparency requirements include disclosure of the following:
Continue Reading HHS Finalizes Health Plan Price Transparency Rule
Podcast: ERISA Preemption of State PBM Regulation
Payers, Providers, and Patients – Oh My! Is Crowell & Moring’s health care podcast, discussing legal and regulatory issues that affect health care entities’ in-house counsel, executives, and investors. In this episode, hosts Payal Nanavati and Joe Records sit down with Todd Rosenberg and Samuel Krause to discuss ERISA preemption of state regulation of pharmacy
Podcast: What Providers Should Know about COVID-19 (Part 2 – Federal and State Guidance)
In part two of this two-part series on what providers should know about COVID-19, hosts Payal Nanavati and Joe Records talk with Brian McGovern about guidance from state and federal health care regulators. This episode touches on how state agencies, CMS, CDC, and other regulatory bodies have instructed providers—especially nursing homes—on how to handle this
Podcast: What Providers Should Know about COVID-19 (Part 1 – Labor and Employment Issues)
Payers, Providers, and Patients – Oh My! Is Crowell & Moring’s health care podcast, discussing legal and regulatory issues that affect health care entities’ in-house counsel, executives, and investors. In part one of this two-part series on what providers should know about COVID-19, hosts Payal Nanavati and Joe Records discuss labor and employment issues with
Podcast: Medical Loss Ratios (Part 2)
Payers, Providers, and Patients – Oh My! Is Crowell & Moring’s health care podcast, discussing legal and regulatory issues that affect health care entities’ in-house counsel, executives, and investors. In this episode, hosts Payal Nanavati and Joe Records sit down with Xavier Baker and Kevin Kroeker to discuss medical loss ratio requirements. The first episode
Podcast: Medical Loss Ratios (Part 1)
Payers, Providers, and Patients – Oh My! Is Crowell & Moring’s health care podcast, discussing legal and regulatory issues that affect health care entities’ in-house counsel, executives, and investors. In this episode, hosts Payal Nanavati and Joe Records sit down with Xavier Baker and Kevin Kroeker to discuss medical loss ratio. This episode touches on
Tenth Circuit Upholds HHS Risk Adjustment Methodology
On December 31, 2019, in New Mexico Health Connections v. U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the methodology adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to administer the Risk Adjustment Program under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). In doing
Podcast: Digital Health Innovation
Payers, Providers, and Patients – Oh My! Is Crowell & Moring’s health care podcast, discussing legal and regulatory issues that affect health care entities’ in-house counsel, executives, and investors. In this episode, hosts Payal Nanavati and Joe Records sit down with Jodi Daniel and Ambassador Robert Holleyman to discuss how regulators—across the U.S. and the