Month: May 2023
Some of the world’s biggest drugmakers are laying legal groundwork to fight the U.S. plan to negotiate drug prices for its Medicare health coverage, including the argument that a ban against speaking about these talks violates constitutional rights, according to six industry sources. The Biden Administration’s signature drug pricing reform, part of the Inflation Reduction ...
As the expiration of the Covid-19 public health emergency declaration approaches, the US Drug Enforcement Administration has extended the flexibilities regarding the prescription of controlled medications via telehealth. Before the pandemic, medical practitioners were subject to the conditions of the Ryan Haight Act, which required at least one in-person medical examination before prescribing a controlled medicine, ...
As the state unwinds from the federal public health emergency, the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS) has begun the reevaluation of all Medicaid enrollments for the first time since 2020 during which you may lose coverage under Medicaid. In April, the first wave of recipients received their renewal packets in the mail. Those who ...
Nevada’s lack of state-supported services for child mental health issues has been described as a “crisis” — underscored by a federal investigation last year revealing that the state’s lack of adequate treatment and services to children and youth with behavioral health disabilities likely violated federal law.
The bill, passed Thursday in California’s senate and assembly, AB-112, would establish a Distressed Hospital Loan Program through Jan. 1, 2032. The program would provide interest-free loans to nonprofit and public hospitals “in significant financial distress,” as well as to “governmental entities representing a closed hospital to prevent the closure or facilitate the reopening of a closed hospital.”
After a big drop off in health care spending during the early months of the COVID pandemic, health care spending bounced back in 2021, a new report has found. The study from the Health Care Cost Institute looked at data from 2021 and before, and found that although utilization of health care dropped in 2020 to the lowest rate seen in 12 years, it rebounded by 2021.
COVID-19 deaths trailed those caused by heart disease, cancer and injuries such as drug overdoses, motor vehicle fatalities and shootings. In 2020 and 2021, only heart disease and cancer were ahead of the coronavirus.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed and the Legislature approved a tax penalty on Californians without health insurance. That money was supposed to be used to lower costs for those insured through Covered California, but that has only happened once.
Spring heralds the start of rate review season: that time of year when state departments of insurance assess health insurers’ proposed rates for the next year and determine whether their plans comply with federal and state laws. Many state insurance departments now have a new responsibility as part of that process
The Drug Enforcement Administration has asked the White House for more time to finalize draft rules that proposed reinstating stricter limits requiring doctors to evaluate patients in-person before prescribing certain drugs — like Adderall and opioid use disorder treatment — via telehealth. Driving the news: DEA administrator Anne Milgram said on Wednesday that temporarily keeping the pandemic-era flexibilities in place would allow ...