Washington Update

Things are very quiet in Washington, D.C., after the flurry of activity prior to the current Congressional recess.

The Senate got through its all-night Vote-a-Rama of amendments, ultimately passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which included giving CMS the authority to negotiate on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries on drug prices (as covered in this space in previous updates, so I will not belabor the policy specifics again). The House then returned from recess to pass the bill, and it was signed into law by President Biden on Wednesday August 17.

The Senate is scheduled to return from recess (“State Work Period”) September 6, the House to return to Washington, D.C., September 13.

Regulatory

The Outpatient Prospect Payment System (OPPS) comment period ends September 13, and the rural emergency facility specific request for comments by CMS closes August 29. We covered the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule in this space two weeks ago, and AHA has an excellent deep dive on its website. The OPPS rule will be finalized late this year (as its payment is on the yearly calendar for implementation, not the October 1 fiscal year calendar as IPPS is). I apologize for the annoying reminder, but it is good to see the regulatory calendar coming at you as that impacts your payments.

Political

Since things are quiet, I will give a few more political updates the next recess weeks. For now, I will restrict to saying current polling looks like the House is likely to have a Republican majority in 2023. The Senate has been a 50-50 coin flip for months, but recent polling suggests Democrats are ahead were the election held today. Wisconsin, Georgia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are not polling as well for the GOP as many had assumed they would. The response I get on this point from my GOP campaign friends is “we care about the November poll results, not August survey polling.” As a recovering elections guy, I agree; but, also, that is what I would say when I knew we were behind.