Author: Scott Welch
California’s first-ever Medicaid managed contract procurements are a major shakeup in the state’s Medi-Cal system, which has over 12 million enrollees, or a third of California’s population. Millions of residents will switch plans as a result of the changes, and a lengthy road of appeals and legal battles could lay ahead. California selected the intended ...
California employers may want to get out their measuring tape — because the size (in cubic feet) of a workspace just became an important element of COVID-19 compliance. Last Thursday and Friday (October 13–14), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) made some significant changes to ...
Pfizer will charge $110 to $130 for a dose of its COVID-19 vaccine once the U.S. government stops buying the shots, but the drugmaker says it expects many people will continue receiving it for free. Pfizer executives said the commercial pricing for adult doses could start early next year, depending on when the government phases ...
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 ...
Apple is poised to enter the health insurance business in 2024 in partnership with a major payer, according to an industry analyst. “They are in such a strong position to do this,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told Forbes. “They’ve got a wealth of personal health data through Apple Watch. If they join some of the dots ...
Starting Monday, consumers will be able to buy hearing aids directly off store shelves and at dramatically lower prices as a 2017 federal law finally takes effect. Where for decades it cost thousands of dollars to get a device that could be purchased only with a prescription from an audiologist or other hearing professional, now ...
Have you gotten your bivalent booster yet? If you live in California, chances are the answer is no, according to data from the California Department of Public Health. As of Oct. 18, just 9% of eligible residents statewide – about 2.6 million people – have had a bivalent booster, the first COVID shot directed at ...
Concern is rapidly growing over emerging omicron coronavirus variant BQ.1 and its sibling BQ.1.1, which experts say appear to be strong candidates for a winter surge in the U.S. and could knock the BA.5 variant out of its dominant spot. The BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants, descendants of BA.5, were first identified in mid-July, according to ...
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 ...
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 ...