Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Deepening Quarrel Between White House Officials, HHS Secretary Threatens To Derail President's Top Health Agenda Items
White House officials have soured on HHS Secretary Alex Azar, a deepening quarrel that threatens to derail President Donald Trump’s health care agenda as he gears up for his 2020 reelection campaign. The divide has led to stalled projects, disputes over Medicaid and fetal tissue research, duplicated work on Trump’s drug pricing priorities — and bitter personal attacks, say a dozen current and former White House and HHS officials as well as multiple other people familiar with the conversations. (Diamond, Kumar, Pradhan and Cancryn, 6/18)
In other news from the administration —
The CMS has agreed to settle appeals from inpatient rehabilitation facilities regarding denied Medicare claims. The settlement ends a two-year dispute with the inpatient rehabilitation industry after they were frequently denied Medicare claims for a variety of reasons, including if the patient missed a few minutes of their minimum time for daily therapy. Medicare would only pay for the therapy if beneficiaries participated at least three hours a day. (Castellucci, 6/18)
