Biden to Get Booster, Push Businesses to Offer Vaccine Clinics

The White House is asking businesses to help employees get updated coronavirus vaccines by hosting on-site clinics and will initiate a new program providing some Americans with free home delivery of Covid-19 treatments before an expected surge of the virus this fall. President Joe Biden will announce the effort Tuesday at the White House, where ...

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Hospitals Said They Lost Money on Medicare Patients. Some Made Millions, a State Report Finds.

Atrium Health, the largest hospital system in North Carolina, has declared publicly that in 2019 it provided $640 million in services to Medicare patients that were never paid for, by far the largest “community benefit” it provided that year. Like other nonprofit hospitals around the nation, Atrium logs losses on the federal health insurance program ...

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Upcoming California Privacy Rights Act: Key Compliance Tasks for California Employers

California employer's reprieve from obligations to employees to disclose data privacy practices and provide access rights to employees appears to be coming to an end as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) becomes effective on January 1, 2023.

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California To End The COVID State Of Emergency

California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end Feb. 28, 2023, nearly three years from its initiation, officials from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced today.

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Inflation Is Near A Four-Decade High. So Why Aren't Health Care Costs Significantly Higher?

As consumers choose a 2023 health insurance plan from employers in coming weeks, many will find rate hikes are modest when compared to everyday living expenses. It’s the first time in over three decades that overall inflation accelerated at a faster rate than medical costs.

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New Biden Order Wants CMMI To Test Payment Models That Tackle High Drug Prices

President Joe Biden is calling for new payment and delivery models that will lower drug prices in a new executive order. The order released Friday calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to craft a report outlining the payment models that will test how to improve access to innovative drugs and lower costs for those ...

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Walgreens Targeting Tech Acquisition As It Looks To Scale Healthcare Business Unit

Retail drugstore giant Walgreens is bullish on scaling up its primary, post-acute and home care businesses as part of its long-term strategy to become a consumer-centric healthcare company. “We are rapidly scaling U.S. healthcare, already raising long-term sales targets with a clear path to achieve profitability, starting in fiscal year ’24,” Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer said last ...

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After Congress Fails to Add Dental Coverage, Medicare Weighs Limited Benefit Expansion

Proposed changes in Medicare rules could soon pave the way for a significant expansion in Medicare-covered dental services, while falling short of the comprehensive benefits that many Democratic lawmakers have advocated. That’s because, under current law, Medicare can pay for limited dental care only if it is medically necessary to safely treat another covered medical ...

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Listen Up: You Can Now Buy Hearing Aids Without A Prescription

The government on Monday will begin allowing pharmacies and big-box stores to sell hearing aids without prescriptions, a move that is expected to shake up an industry that has long been dominated by a handful of manufacturers under a model of care that critics said raised costs and stifled innovation. Backers of the change say ...

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US Health Insurance Prices Went Up Nearly 30% Over The Past Year

Health insurance prices reported their highest yearly annual increase since the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began posting them in 2005. According to the latest data, published on Oct. 13 (pdf), the price of health insurance increased 28.2% from September 2021 to September 2022. That is one of the steepest increases of all products tracked by ...

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