Month: December 2022
COVID-19 transmission continues to surge in California, along with spikes in other respiratory viruses, as state and local health officials urge indoor masking and additional precautions with end-of-year holidays approaching.
The federal system meant to stop health care business owners and executives from repeatedly bilking government health programs fails to do so, a KHN investigation has found.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid from the tobacco industry to block a California ban on flavored tobacco products. The ban, or Proposition 31, was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November and will prohibit the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. The emergency plea was brought by R.J. Reynolds, a ...
The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2021 created a myriad of new compliance requirements for health plans, insurance issuers, insurance agents, and providers – all aimed to promote transparency. While the law was signed on December 27, 2020, many of its requirements and deadlines are approaching now. One of the new CAA requirements is for ...
The Biden administration wants to limit to two the number of nonstandardized Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange plans an insurer can offer on HealthCare.gov in 2024 as part of an effort to make it easier for consumers to pick a plan. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Monday the proposed Notice of ...
Amazon is ending support for a program that allowed patients to share HIPAA-protected health information with healthcare organizations through Alexa. The news was first reported by Voicebot.ai. The invite-only program, which first launched in 2019, allowed select developers to create and launch HIPAA-compliant healthcare skills for Alexa (skills are the third-party voice apps that run on Alexa ...
The Retirement Savings for Americans Act would establish a new program that gives workers access to portable, tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts with federal matching contributions for low- and middle-income workers.
Ongoing economic challenges are a top health-related concern for many people, according to a new survey from Oscar Health. Oscar teamed with Morning Consult to poll 1,000 people from across the U.S. and found 44% consider the economy the largest challenge facing their health, 19% more than the next-highest concern mentioned in the survey, the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Lasik eye surgery has been known in the common vernacular as a surgery that is both beneficial and low-risk for quite some time now. And while that is generally true, there are reportedly risks that some doctors neglect to tell their patients about. According to an investigation done by the Food And Drug Administration (FDA), these risks include a ...
MedPAC wants Congress to increase hospitals and clinicians’ 2o24 Medicare payment rates. Why it matters: If Congress opts not to follow the recommendations, CMS has to make payment updates according to current law — setting up another year of providers running to lawmakers for relief from Medicare cuts after the fact. * Commissioners hashed out draft payment recommendations ...