Draft Infrastructure Bill Includes Health Center Funding
Last week, President Biden outlined his framework for the BBB Act, hoping to persuade progressives to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill before the October 31, 2021 deadline. The $1.75 trillion
framework announced by President Biden contains $135B for an expansion of the ACA premium tax credits through 2025 to help close the Medicaid coverage gap; $35B for an expansion of Medicare to cover hearing benefits; and $150B for Medicaid home health care. Later in the day, a
version of the bill was posted on the House Rules page, which included:
- $1 billion for health center capital
- $3.37 billion for Teaching Health Center GME
- $650 million for the National Health Service Corps
- $200 million for Nurse Corps
- Significant strengthening of Medicaid and ACA benefits, including continuation of ACA tax credits; permanent expansion of the CHIP program; expanded investments in outreach and enrollment; 12 months continuous Medicaid coverage for pregnant/postpartum individuals and 1 year of continuous Medicaid coverage for children; and expansion of 100% FMAP for Urban Indian Organizations (UIO) and Native Hawaiians to 16 quarters, among others
A summary of other provisions is included
here. Notably, the bill does not include several popular provisions from the original bill, such as the authority for Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and Medicare dental coverage. It is unclear whether those provisions will ultimately be included but there is broad understanding that there will be a manager’s amendment.
ACA Marketplace Open Through January 15
The Marketplace Open Enrollment Period on
www.HealthCare.gov runs from November 1, 2021 to January 15, 2022. Consumers who enroll by midnight on December 15 can get full year coverage that starts January 1. This year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is focusing on increasing access to assistance for Marketplace consumers, ensuring robust outreach and education efforts to reach consumers about the opportunity to enroll or re-enroll in Marketplace coverage. CMS has also committed to raising awareness around low-cost plans for 2022, as a result of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP).
More information can be found here.
New Requirement to Provide Good Faith Estimates to Uninsured Patients
Starting January 2022, health centers must provide uninsured patients with a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of the total out-of-pocket costs they will incur for care within 1 to 3 days of the patient scheduling the care or requesting the GFE. View a preliminary analysis of these new regulatory requirements. The document will be expanded later this month. The requirement was established by an Interim Final Rule (IFR) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services implementing the “No Surprises Act” enacted in December 2020.
Toolkit on Federal Vaccine Mandates
While the vaccine mandate rule has not yet been published, Colleen Meiman, National Policy Advisor for State & Regional Associations of Community Health Centers, has released an updated toolkit for health centers that consolidates the information and resources available to date. The toolkit will be updated as additional information becomes available. It contains:
- A set of FAQs. For many of these questions, there are no answers yet. (These are being shared with federal administrators to be addressed in the interim final rule.)
- Links to resources to address vaccine hesitancy specifically among health care workers.
- Information around medical exemptions, including how health centers can respond to patient requests.
- Sample documents from a health center that has already announced a vaccine requirement.
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) recently held a webinar providing an overview of what is currently known about what will be included in the rule when published.
Click here to read their FAQs.