Supreme Court Rejects HHS’ Medicare DSH Changes

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that HHS improperly changed its Medicare disproportionate-share hospital payments when it made billions of dollars in cuts.

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California Lawmakers Vote to Offer Health Insurance to Undocumented Immigrants

The California State Assembly voted overwhelmingly this week to pass legislation that would allow adult undocumented immigrants to receive health insurance benefits.

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More States Sue Opioid Maker Alleging Deceptive Marketing

California, Hawaii, Maine and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits Monday against the maker of OxyContin and the company’s former president, alleging the firm falsely promoted the drug by downplaying the risk of addiction while it emerged as one of the most widely abused opioids in the U.S.

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Poll: 1 in 4 Americans Say Cost Led to Skipping Medical Care

More than 1 in 4 Americans say they or a family member went without needed health care in the past two years because they felt they could not afford it, according to a new poll.

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Prices for Top-Selling Drugs Appear Immune to Common Market Forces: Study

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which examined prices for the 49 top-selling drugs between January 2012 and December 2017, found virtually all of them rose in price on a regular basis. The median price among those drugs rose 76% over the time period, and 78% of the drugs in the study saw price hikes of at least 50%. More than 4 of 5 products in the study more than doubled in price. 

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Hospitals Accused Of Paying Doctors Large Kickbacks In Quest For Patients

For a hospital that had once labored to break even, Wheeling Hospital displayed abnormally deep pockets when recruiting doctors. To lure Dr. Adam Tune, an anesthesiologist from nearby Pittsburgh who specialized in pain management, the Catholic hospital built a clinic for him to run on its campus in Wheeling, W.Va. It paid Tune as much as $1.2 million a year — well above the salaries of 90% of pain management physicians across the nation, the federal government charged in a lawsuit filed this spring.

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Health Plan Satisfaction with Benefits Coverage is Rising

Consumers' overall satisfaction with their health plans is on the rise--but insurers continue to struggle with meeting key aspects of their customers' financial and personal health expectations.

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Will Drug Prices in TV Ads Really Be Transparent?

A website launched by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly LLY, +0.36%   earlier this year leads with a daunting statement about the price of its diabetes drug Trulicity: “Drug prices can be confusing,” it says. That’s for sure, and thanks to a new mandate from the Trump administration, consumers could find themselves even more confused.

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U.S. Healthcare Spending to Grow 4% in 2019

U.S. healthcare spending is expected to grow by 4% to $3.6 trillion this year while drug spending is expected to increase 2.5% to $370.7 billion, according to a new report from Fitch Solutions Macro Research, a unit of Fitch Group.

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White House Runs Into Health-Care Industry Hostility as it Plans Executive Order

President Trump is preparing to issue an executive order to foster greater price transparency across a broad swath of the health-care industry as consumer concerns about medical costs emerge as a major issue in the lead-up to next year’s presidential election.

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