Month: January 2021
CMS on Friday finalized a rule it estimates will save the federal government $75.4 million over the next decade in Medicare Advantage and Part D payments, with the agency crediting cost-savings to several measures enacted to curb prescription drug spending. Under the new rule, CMS expanded drug and medication therapy management programs that require Medicare ...
California lifted a stay-at-home order in the 13-county Sacramento region on Tuesday as hospital conditions improved, a rare turn of good news as the state pushes through what Gov. Gavin Newsom called “its most intense surge” of the coronavirus. The order imposed Dec. 10 banned gatherings outside a household and shuttered or restricted many businesses. ...
As the total number of coronavirus infections in California approaches 3 million, health officials said Sunday that a new strain — different from a highly contagious variant first identified in the United Kingdom — is popping up more frequently across the state. Researchers have identified the strain in a dozen counties and have linked it ...
California on Monday became the first state to record more than 3 million known coronavirus infections. The grim milestone, as tallied by Johns Hopkins University, wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents but its speed stunning. The state only reached 2 million reported cases on Dec. 24. The first coronavirus case in ...
Health officials in California are telling medical providers across the state not to administer doses from one lot of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine while they investigate possible severe allergic reactions last week in a number of people who got shots at a community vaccination clinic. More than 330,000 doses from the lot were distributed to 287 ...
William Brown has yet to set foot in a classroom during his freshman year of high school — kept at home, like many students, by the pandemic. Days before Christmas, he took a step that could help him and other youngsters return to school sooner. With his parents’ encouragement, the 15-year-old signed up for a ...
Victories by Democrats Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff in Georgia’s Senate runoffs Tuesday have changed the dynamics for health-care legislation. However, experts believe that small changes are more likely than major structural overhauls, according to the New York Times.
The coronavirus pandemic doomed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plans last year to combat homelessness, expand behavioral health services and create a state agency to control soaring health care costs.
COVID-19 is changing the way human resources professionals view employee benefits, a new survey shows. Artemis Health, a data analytics company, polled 300 benefits leaders at firms with more than 5,000 employees and found that 78% reported employee health and
With COVID-19 surging and vaccinations off to a slow start, President-elect Joe Biden will rapidly release most available vaccine doses to protect more people, his office said Friday, a reversal of Trump administration policies. “The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get ...