Month: April 2023
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, reached a deal on new legislation that aims to increase access to generic drugs and impose transparency measures on pharmacy middlemen. The two senators, the new leaders of the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), said the legislative package will “reform pharmacy benefit managers and expand ...
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the Act), signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, includes several provisions to lower prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and reduce drug spending by the federal government. One of the Act’s key drug-related policies is a requirement for the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate prices ...
The News The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an additional round of bivalent booster shots for adults who are 65 and over as well as people with compromised immune systems. The effort is to ensure ongoing protection against Covid, which is still claiming more than 1,300 lives each week. The bivalent shots target ...
The Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against 18 defendants in nine federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving health care services that exploited the COVID-19 pandemic and allegedly resulted in over $490 million in COVID-19 related false billings to federal programs and theft from federally ...
The Medical Board of California may soon get a significant boost to its enforcement powers, but some are already saying that proposed changes do not go far enough. On a unanimous vote Monday, the state Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development approved a “sunset review” bill that would allow the board to continue ...
Pharmaceutical companies that fought drug pricing reforms Congress passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act are now weighing a legal challenge as the Biden administration sets about implementing the policy. “I don’t think we’ve made any decisions at this time, but it’s certainly something we’re looking into,” Lori Reilly, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers ...
House lawmakers backed by a wide array of industries think they have a solution to Medicare’s approaching insolvency: moving more care from the hospital to the home. A new bill from Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) that aims to reduce care in hospitals and other health care facilities and increase it in living rooms marks a ...
Having trouble sleeping? Just 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise can help improve sleep quality. A researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep says it won’t take long to see a benefit. “It’s generally not going to take months or years to see a benefit,” Charlene Gamaldo, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep ...
What does the end of the COVID public health emergency on May 11 mean for health benefits? The expiration of COVID-19 era public health benefits, including COVID-19 coverage mandates for health insurance and the suspension of Medicaid dis-enrollments, means many workers and employers need to reorient themselves in the health care marketplace. Now, the U.S. Department of ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will require insurers on the Affordable Care Act exchanges to include substance abuse and mental health providers in their plans, among other things.