Join the Healthcare team at Forvis Mazars US every other Tuesday, beginning on August 26, for our new series covering the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Our professionals will break down what this legislation means for healthcare providers and share actionable guidance to help you navigate what’s next.
Below is an overview of the OBBBA Tuesdays webinar series:
August 26: Overview & Implications for Healthcare Providers
In the first session of our series, we summarize key healthcare provisions of the OBBBA and when they take effect. We also explore the implications for hospitals, health systems, and other provider organizations. The session will cover:
- Changes in:
- Medicaid Financing: Provider taxes, state-directed payments (SDPs), FMAPs (expansion incentive, emergency Medicaid for undocumented individuals)
- Medicaid Eligibility: Work requirements for the expansion population, more frequent redeterminations, changes in retroactive eligibility
- Exchange Enrollment and Eligibility: Shortened open enrollment, reduced opportunities for special enrollment periods (SEPs)
- Federal Deficit: Medicare Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (S-PAYGO) sequester triggered
- Rural Health Transformation Fund: $50 billion over five years allocated to states that apply
- Margin implications and strategies for hospitals and health systems to respond:
- Reduced Medicaid/Medicare Payments: Organizations can respond by rationalizing cost structure and exploring growth opportunities.
- Increased Uninsured/Uncompensated Care: Organizations can respond by improving front-end revenue cycle processes to connect patients with other sources of coverage or financial assistance.
- Second-Order Impacts: Organizations can respond by protecting Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) and 340B eligibility and increasing Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payments for hospital services.
Tuesday, August 26 at 12 p.m. ET, with Chad Mulvany and Brad Brotherton
September 9: Understanding & Communicating the Financial Impact for Hospital Stakeholders
- Many healthcare organizations do not have the information necessary to accurately model the financial impact of the OBBBA. In the absence of adequate data, there are steps organizations can take to estimate the range of possible financial impacts and communicate it to key stakeholders, including the board. This session will cover:
- OBBBA impact areas healthcare organizations should review.
- Strategies for estimating the impact at the service line, component (hospital, physician practice, post-acute care provider), and health system levels in the absence of all necessary data.
- Tactics for communicating estimated results to key stakeholders (board members, staff, community).
Tuesday, September 9 at 12 p.m. ET with Courtney Young, Mike Hurlbert, and Jean Nyberg
September 23: Improving Revenue Cycle & Managed Care Performance for Hospitals
- In the face of deep cuts to federal Medicaid funding in the OBBBA, healthcare organizations will need to refocus their margin improvement efforts. This session will cover:
- Proactively partnering with community groups to help individuals maintain coverage.
- Improving front-end revenue cycle operations to connect uninsured patients with available coverage or financial assistance, and to improve patient liability collections at the time of service.
- Using benchmarking data to help improve managed care contracting rates.
Tuesday, September 23 at 12 p.m. ET
October 7: Identifying Aligned Growth Opportunities for Hospital Providers
- The OBBBA will likely create opportunities for health systems with strong balance sheets to integrate with other hospitals, physician practices, post-acute care providers, and ambulance services to preserve access to care in some communities. To help navigate these opportunities, this session will:
- Provide a framework for screening integration opportunities.
- Describe tactics for achieving integration goals.
- Review best practices from organizations that have successfully integrated.
Tuesday, October 7 at 12 p.m. ET with Andrea Rice and Joe Watt
October 21: Mitigating Regulatory Impacts – Medicare DSH & 340B
- The loss of Medicaid coverage due to the OBBBA will lead to a reduction in the Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) percentage for many healthcare organizations, lowering payments and threatening 340B eligibility for some covered entities. In addition, increases in uncompensated care could result in reallocation of a limited pool of uncompensated care DSH dollars. This session will help hospitals and health systems mitigate these impacts by discussing approaches to:
- Increase the numerator and decrease the denominator of the Medicaid fraction.
- Improve the documentation of uncompensated care captured on Worksheet S-10.
Tuesday, October 21 at 12 p.m. ET with Alondrea Smith, Morgan McGlothin, and Derek Pierce
November 4: Mitigating Regulatory Impacts – State-Directed Payments
- The OBBBA caps state-directed payments (SDPs) at the Medicare rate in expansion states and at 110% of the Medicare rate in non-expansion states. Therefore, hospitals need to explore all strategies for increasing Medicare payment rates. This session will cover strategies to:
- Optimize Medicare Area Wage Index (AWI).
- Increase Medicare Indirect Medical Education (IME) funding.
- Improve accuracy of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) surveys.
Tuesday, November 4 at 12 p.m. ET with Chris Woosley, Cassandra Fahey, and Sabrina Preston
Presenter(s)
Chad Mulvany, Brad Brotherton, Courtney Young, Jean Nyberg, Alondrea Smith, Derek Pierce, Chris Woosley, Cassandra Fahey, Sabrina Preston, Andrea Rice, Morgan McGlothlin