Congress remains on a social distancing work period away from Capitol Hill for another week. Fierce Healthcare reports on the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s recommendations for the next COVID-19 relief bill which include COBRA/TCC subsidies (as in the 2009 Great Recession), expand tax credits for ACA marketplace plans and eliminate surprise billing through a national benchmark model. Hopefully this will be an appropriate time to adopt such a surprise billing solution that would not increase costs.

In the wake of President Trump signing the COVID-19 relief act no. 3.5 last Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced today that it will be re-evaluating how it spends the expanded pool of relief funding for hospitals and other healthcare providers created by that law.

The FEHBlog looks forward to listening to the NCQA’s virtual Quality Talks 2020 program on Tuesday. He will provide some highlights in Tuesday’s post.

The Government Accountability Office released a report on implementation of the Trump Administration’s June 2018 federal agency reorganization plan. GAO reports favorably on the transition of the background search investigations function from OPM to the Defense Department. Late last month, according to Federal News Network, OPM finalized a Congressionally mandated contract with the National Academy of Public Administration. “[NAPA] will provide Congress a report next March [2021] with its findings [on OPM and its mission], as well as its recommendations for addressing OPM’s challenges. OPM has another six months to respond to NAPA’s report to Congress.”