- Recently, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Operations Committee held a hearing on a bill (S. 2521) that would expand FEHB Program eligibility to cover domestic partners. OPM opposes the bill on the ground, among others, that the expansion would be costly. Govexec.com reports on a Center for American Progress report finding that based on state and local government experience, the cost of such expansion, at least to same sex domestic partners, would be low.
- NCQA published a study on 2008 HEDIS reports submitted by private and public health plans. The upshot of the “State of Health Care Quality” report is that “while quality improved for most people in private health insurance plans [including FEHB plans], there was little improvement in the care delivered to those enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, the nation’s two largest public health care programs.”
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that, beginning October 1, 2008, it will publish most of the edits utilized in its Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE) program to improve the accuracy of claims payments. Those MUEs are available here.
