Folana Houston

Today’s update touches on a number of healthcare news stories we are seeing at the federal level. Taking lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden Administration unveiled the strategy the U.S. has planned to prevent (and, if necessary, respond) to global biological threats over the next five years. The strategy sets out three goals to guide the United States affirmative agenda to advance global health security: The First goal is to strengthen global partnerships.

To provide a No Surprises Act update, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) new Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) guidelines face backlash from medical societies representing radiology, emergency medicine, and anesthesiology, with the groups claiming in a statement that the agency’s new guidance expands the “already significant discretion” health plans have in calculating the qualifying payment amount (QPA).