Author: Scott Welch
President Joe Biden’s latest executive order promoting competition in the U.S. economy could be a boon to private equity and disrupt the medical profession’s long-standing guilds, depending on how far federal officials want to take matters. The order empowers federal agencies to use existing federal law to lower healthcare costs, particularly prescription drugs. While few ...
The World War II veteran needed to repay the loan for the water pump installed on his 1-acre property in rural Tulare County, the only source of water to his mobile home. He carefully socked away a few thousand dollars so he could make the payoff — only to find that those savings put him over the asset threshold to remain on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program for low-income people.
California announced new coronavirus rules for public schools on Monday that let students and teachers sit as close to each other as they want while making sure no one will miss class time even if they are exposed to someone with the virus.
President Biden is calling on federal health officials to intensify efforts to drive down prescription drug prices as part of an executive order he signed Friday to spur federal agencies to promote economic competition.
Democratic lawmakers are grappling with how to extend health insurance to millions of poor Americans in states that have refused Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, believing their upcoming party-line “human infrastructure” package represents the best chance to plug the health law’s biggest gap.
The hospital lobby pushed back against the president’s executive order. The American Hospital Association said hospital mergers already are subject to an “enormous amount of rigorous scrutiny” from federal and state regulators. The lobby pointed the finger at the insurance industry, and urged the administration to focus its efforts there instead. The Federation of American ...
Dive Brief: * Telehealth claim lines as a percentage of all medical claims dropped 13% in April, marking the third straight month of declines, according to new data from nonprofit Fair Health. * The dip was greater than the drop of 5.1% in March, but not as large as the decrease of almost 16% in February. However, overall ...
A new study has found that COVID-19 vaccines may be somewhat vulnerable to the California “Epsilon” strain of virus. The variant has three spike protein mutations it uses to weaken current vaccines by up to 70 percent, according to researchers from University of Washington and the San Fransisco-based lab Vir Biotechnology. The strain’s mutations break down ...
The coronavirus has reliably disregarded all hopes that it would observe human holidays, deadlines or elections. Across California, evidence is once again accumulating that it responds only to caution and consistency. Despite high vaccination rates and low case numbers, the Bay Area saw infections rise quickly enough in recent weeks to rank on a federal ...
If you don’t spend your days on TikTok or Reddit, you may be blissfully unaware of a growing movement urging people to quit their jobs en masse this fall. It’s called “The Great Resignation of 2021,” and for businesses already struggling to attract workers back to the office it could spell very bad news. The social media ...