Trending News Today: Value-Based Payment Shift May Reduce Low Cost Drug Access

Louisiana recently started their Medicaid expansion, making them the third Southern state to do so, according to Kaiser Health News. Since the start of the expansion, there has been more than 200,000 individuals to sign up. However, states that are similarly governed, such as Georgia, still strongly oppose Medicaid expansion, saying that it will be too expensive.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently proposed changes to the Medicare appeals process in hopes of reducing the accumulation of appeals. According to Kaiser Health News, a Medicare official states that if no changes are made, it will take approximately 11 years to review the backlog of 700,000 cases. They are hoping to eliminate the amount of appeals that need a third level of appeal, which is where the delays happen.

A proposal to change Medicare’s payment incentives has recently come under scrutiny by lawmakers, physicians, and patient groups. Critics believe that the proposal to shift to value based payments will make access to low cost prescription drugs more difficult. With the new payments, physicians receive less reimbursement even for costlier medications, according to The Wall Street Journal.