Federal News Network reports that
House appropriators are silent on federal [employee] pay for now, increasing the likelihood that a planned 1% raise for civilian employees next year will advance as the president intended.
A draft budget bill for 2021, which the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government released Tuesday afternoon, makes no mention of a federal pay raise for General Schedule employees next year.
In their silence, House appropriators are essentially deferring to the proposal President Donald Trump offered earlier this year. In his budget request for 2021, the president recommended a 1% across-the-board federal pay raise for civilian employees next year, with no further locality pay adjustments. Military members are on track to receive a 3% pay raise next year.
The House bill also includes the three standard FEHBP appropriations clauses — a provision prohibiting the application of full Cost Accounting Standards coverage to FEHB plans (Sec. 611), a provision restricting abortion coverage (Sec. 611), and a provision mandating contraception coverage (Sec. 613).
Fortune Magazine discusses CMS Administrator Seema Verma’s comments on data accessibility and telemedicine at a Fortune conference today. Fierce Healthcare adds that “
CMS is eyeing ways to make expanding access to telehealth permanent, though the final word in overhauls to Medicare lies with Congress, Verma said. “It’s not a panacea; it’s not going to solve every problem,” she said. “Not everything is going to be able to be addressed by telehealth. But it’s a very powerful tool for medicine.”
Healthcare Dive provides us with background on the healthcare providers who received Payroll Protection Program loans from the federal government. In the FEHBlog’s book, the PPP is one of the best relief measures that Congress has dreamed up.
On the prescription benefit management front, Fierce Healthcare informs us that
Anthem’s pharmacy benefit manager IngenioRx will acquire ZipDrug, a data-driven pharmacy management company.
The acquisition expands IngenioRx’s offerings to include a platform that directs consumers to pharmacies with high-performing pharmacies and that offers home prescription delivery, the insurer announced (PDF) Monday.
IngenioRx will offer ZipDrug’s services both integrated into its broader PBM platform and as a standalone service, according to the announcement.
and that
Startup pharmacy benefit manager Capital Rx is teaming up with Walmart to bring greater transparency to specialty and mail-order prescriptions.
Capital Rx provides PBM services to employers and health plans through its “clearinghouse” model, in which they provide unit costs for drugs upfront to clients. The model is also designed to prevent “spread pricing,” in which a PBM charges a payer significantly more than a pharmacy’s price for a drug to reap profits.