Author: Scott Welch
Medicare beneficiaries stand to lose access to two key virtual care programs that the federal government has offered since the start of the pandemic if the government shuts down Tuesday at midnight. The Medicare telehealth waivers and Acute Hospital at Home programs are set to expire Oct. 1 unless Congress passes a short-term government funding ...
With the Trump administration scaling back federal efforts to protect Americans from medical bills they can’t pay, advocates for patients and consumers have shifted their work to contain the nation’s medical debt problem to state Capitols. Despite progress in some mostly blue states this year, however, recent setbacks in more conservative legislatures underscore the persistent ...
The Trump administration projects average Medicare Advantage (MA) premiums will decline slightly for the 2026 plan year. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Friday that the average monthly premium across all types of MA coverage is set to be $14, down from $16.40 in 2025. This includes MA plans with prescription drug coverage as ...
On September 17, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 144 (AB 144) into law, a move in response to recent changes in immunization recommendations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bill, which took effect immediately, mandates that health plans cover a wide range of preventive care services, including immunizations, without cost-sharing or utilization ...
Pharmacy middlemen are working on a proposal to voluntarily change some of their business practices in an effort to avoid new regulation from the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the discussions. The main lobbying group that represents so-called pharmacy benefit managers, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, has drafted proposals to bring to the ...
Heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes don’t come out of nowhere, a new study concludes. The first time they strike, patients, clinicians, and researchers might think there were no red flags. But a prospective cohort study reports that more than 99% of people who experienced these illnesses had at least one of four risks for cardiovascular ...
The House passed a Republican-backed measure, largely along party lines, that would push the shutdown deadline to Nov. 21. But then the Senate rejected a Democrat-led proposal that would keep the government open through Oct. 31, as well as implement several Democratic priorities.
Word & Brown has released an upgrade to the Forms & Docs search tool on wordandbrown.com, giving brokers a faster, more intuitive way to find what they need. The updated tool scans the content of each PDF – not just file titles – delivering more complete and relevant search results. The upgrade is designed to ...
Every day for nearly 18 years, Alessandra Fabrello has been a medical caregiver for her son, on top of being his mom. “It is almost impossible to explain what it takes to keep a child alive who should be dead,” said Fabrello, whose son, Ysadore Maklakoff, experienced a rare brain condition called acute necrotizing encephalopathy ...
Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health is rolling out new medical devices co-designed with Epic that connect directly to the EHR, a move the health system says will make it easier for patients to manage chronic conditions at home. The proprietary blood pressure cuff, scale and glucometer automatically transmit data to Epic’s MyChart app and into a patient’s health ...