Author: Scott Welch
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that California is expanding behavioral health treatment capacity statewide through a series of new and ongoing projects aimed at increasing mental health and substance use disorder services.
More access to affordable weight-loss medications is coming this summer for adults on Medicare. Starting in July, certain Medicare enrollees can pay $50 a month for specific prescription GLP–1 medications, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare announced the pilot program for the popular weight loss medications on Wednesday. The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program will run ...
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently announced an action plan aimed at reducing the overprescribing of psychiatric medications. “Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications — especially among children,” he said last week. “We will support patient autonomy; require informed ...
Employers want greater transparency in their pharmacy benefits, with many viewing a model that eschews rebates as a key way to get there, according to a new survey. The Penta Group surveyed 300 benefits decision-makers, half of whom hailed from companies with 1,000 to 4,999 workers and half from companies with more than 5,000 employees, for Evernorth. ...
Following a series of “most favored nation” (MFN) pricing deals with 17 large pharma companies, the Trump administration released a report Tuesday projecting a potential $529 billion in savings from the policy over the next decade. That $529 billion figure comes from an estimation of prospective MFN, in which biopharma companies pledge to launch all future U.S. ...
Four Californians exposed to the deadly Hantavirus outbreak linked to a Dutch cruise ship are being monitored by health officials — including one Bay Area resident who was aboard the vessel before the illness was detected. The California Department of Public Health said on Monday it is coordinating with the CDC and local health officials after three California ...
The American Medical Association (AMA) rolled out a comprehensive framework to protect physicians from unauthorized artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes. The guide, created by the organization’s Center for Digital Health and AI, aims to modernize physician identity protections while closing legal gaps. The AMA uses the term “augmented intelligence” when referring to AI to emphasize its assistive role in medicine. ...
A study from researchers at Loma Linda University in California suggests that eating eggs — fairly frequently — could be linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease among older adults. The findings, published in the Journal of Nutrition, indicated a 27 percent decreased risk of Alzheimer’s among study participants who ate at least five eggs per week, but even ...
A new task force will investigate healthcare fraud cases in Nevada, Arizona and part of California, the Justice Department announced Thursday. The West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force will combine resources from DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, and its the Health Care Fraud Section, with U.S. attorney’s offices in Nevada, Arizona and the Northern ...
In his earliest days in the governor’s office, Gavin Newsom huddled with his advisers to consider how to realize a key campaign promise: transforming a healthcare system replete with insurance company intermediaries into the nation’s first state-run single-payer model.