Mid-Atlantic Health Law TOPICS

1.  On February 2, 2025, Governor Wes Moore announced the appointment of Dr. Meena Seshamani as Maryland Department of Health Secretary, succeeding Dr. Laura Herrera Scott. Dr. Seshamani is described as one of the nation’s top strategic health leaders with experience as deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) where she implemented initiatives to improve Medicare’s prescription drug coverage. Prior to joining CMS, Dr. Seshamani was vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health, served as director of the Office of Health Reform in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she led implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and cared for patients as a head and neck surgeon. She has a long history of working to increase access to health care coverage and previously served on the Total Cost of Care and care transformation steering committees for the Maryland All-Payer Model. Dr. Seshamani assumed the role of Secretary of Health on April 8, 2025. 

2.  The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission recently approved the Hospital Best Practice Policy, a new pay-for-performance quality initiative that provides incentives for hospitals to maintain high-quality patient care and value over time within a global budget framework. During its initial year, the policy will incentivize hospitals to address hospital throughput and the long Emergency Department length of stay experienced by patients in Maryland. In future years, the Commission will determine up to six best practices. Failure to implement and report data to the Commission by October 2025 will result in a 0.1 percent penalty on all-payer, inpatient revenue to be assessed in January 2026. The Commission also proposed that subsequent rate years have +/-0.25 percent inpatient hospital revenue at risk tied to performance on these best practice metrics, but intends to evaluate the impact of the best practices and make a final recommendation for subsequent rate years after the Best Practice program impact is assessed. 

Kennedy M. Hagens
410-576-4146 • khagens@gfrlaw.com