Senate hearing previews upcoming debate about future of CHIP

And, on the House side, Ways & Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, expresses displeasure with a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plan to clear a hospital appeals backlog.

The New York Times: Fate Of Children's Insurance Program Is Called Into Question At Senate Hearing
A Senate hearing on Tuesday set the stage for a coming debate over whether the federal government should continue financing a popular health insurance program for lower-income children who are now eligible for new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act (Goodnough, 9/16).

CQ Healthbeat: Brady Decries CMS Settlement Proposal To Cut Appeals Backlog
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Tuesday called on the Obama administration to retract a plan to clear a backlog of hospital appeals of denied Medicare payment claims, saying it is "just throwing money at a problem to make it go away." The circumstances that apply in one case do not necessarily apply to another, said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, in a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. HHS is facing an enormous backlog of appeals that hospitals say is unfairly tying up their payments for years and making it difficult to overturn unjustified decisions by anti-fraud contractors. HHS recently proposed to end the backlog by proposing to pay the claims at a rate of 68 cents on the dollar. Brady asked Burwell how HHS arrived at that figure. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "has not provided an empirical analysis to justify offering a settlment rate of 68 percent," he said (Reichard, 9/16).