Author: Scott Welch
Overpriced doctors and other medical providers who can’t charge a reasonable rate for their services could be put out of business when new rules against surprise medical bills take effect in January, and that’s a good thing, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told KHN, in defending the regulations.
Democrats and Republicans are crystal clear in polls that they want government to be allowed to negotiate down high drug prices. Americans pay nearly three times as much for drugs as patients in dozens of other countries.
On Nov. 5, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published nearly 500 pages of emergency temporary standards (ETS) that, among other things, would have required employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be fully vaccinated days into the new year.
California now has one of the lowest coronavirus infection rates in the country, with 1.9% of people testing positive for the disease in the last week as the nation’s most populous state has so far avoided the uptick feared heading into the end-of-year holidays.
In the post-pandemic world, the demand for expanded benefits will not be a short-lived trend, a new report suggests. The new study by LIMRA and EY finds that non-medical workplace benefits will grow by 20% over the next five years, and said that hybrid work arrangements, growing diversity, and innovations in technology will all contribute to an ...
CVS Health is closing 900 stores over the next three years, amounting to nearly 10% of its footprint, in response to the changing of “consumer buying patterns.” The drug store chain said Thursday that the closures will result in a retail presence that ensures it has the “right kinds of stores in the right locations ...
The House passed a massive, roughly $2 trillion infrastructure package that will give Medicare the power to narrowly negotiate prices on certain prescription drugs and close the Medicaid coverage gap. The package, called the Build Back Better Act, advanced out of the House late Thursday by a vote of 220 to 213. It now heads to ...
The Biden administration has issued an interim final rule that requires private insurers to report prescription drug costs to the federal government. The interim rule, which also includes a request for comment, is the latest in a series of regulations implementing provisions of the No Surprises Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Insurers ...
Workers and families with private health insurance would reap savings on prescription drugs from a little-noticed provision in President Joe Biden’s sweeping social agenda bill. It’s meant to break the cycle of annual price increases for widely used medicines. That provision would require drug companies to pay rebates to Medicare if they increase prices above the rate of ...
An expert committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines voted 11-to-0 on Friday to recommend Covid-19 booster shot eligibility be thrown open to all adults 18 and older. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also recommended, by the same vote, that the CDC lower the age for adults who should ...