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Compliance

This section focuses on health care compliance and regulations – both national and state – including the ACA. It includes changes in health care law, regulation, and court decisions and their impact on health insurance professionals, employers, and individuals.

Employers Cut Health Costs With Incentives for Patients, Doctors

Employers can cut their health-care expenses by paying top medical providers a flat rate for a bundle of related services while offering incentives to the patients who use them, a study suggests. The study, published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, found that employers using a flat-rate approach run by Carrum Health saved about 11% ...

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Biden To Announce ‘Historic Partnership’: Merck Will Help Make Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine, Officials Say

President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck will help make Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine — an unusual pact between fierce competitors that could sharply boost the supply of the newly authorized vaccine, according to senior administration officials. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been ...

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‘Please Hear Me Clearly’: CDC Director Urges States Not To Reopen Too Soon As Cases Plateau

The U.S. has hit a plateau in coronavirus cases and deaths that signal a “potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic,” the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned states on Monday not to loosen restrictions and get in front of the progress the country has made since it hit a monumental 300,000 cases a ...

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Biden’s Virus Relief Plan Threatens to Trigger Medicare Cuts

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package would trigger cuts to Medicare and other programs early next year unless Republicans agree to a waiver — a hurdle that could give the GOP leverage over Democrats’ slim majorities. The Congressional Budget Office said in a letter Thursday to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that Medicare would face ...

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Health Insurers Have To Cover COVID-19 Tests For Asymptomatic People, CMS Says

CMS issued a guidance Feb. 26 that requires group health plans to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing even if a person doesn’t have symptoms or a suspected exposure, among other requirements. Five things to know: 1. The guidance clarifies that private group health plans generally can’t use medical screening criteria to deny coverage for COVID-19 tests for ...

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Biden Asks High Court To Drop 2 Trump-Era Medicaid Cases

The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court not to hear arguments in two cases on its March calendar about the Trump administration’s plan to remake Medicaid by requiring recipients to work. The Biden administration has been moving to roll back those Trump-era plans and cited “greatly changed circumstances” in asking Monday that the cases be dropped ...

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New California Single-Payer Bill Intensifies Newsom’s Political Peril

A group of Democratic state lawmakers introduced legislation Friday to create a single-payer health care system to cover all Californians, immediately defining the biggest health policy debate of the year and putting enormous political pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Biden Is Changing PPP Rules. For 2 Weeks, Only Businesses With Fewer Than 20 Employees Can Claim Pandemic Relief Loans.

President Joe Biden is set to change the main US coronavirus aid program for small businesses on Monday to try to reach smaller, minority-owned businesses and sole proprietors left behind in previous rounds of aid.

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Kaiser Is Expanding Who It’s Vaccinating. Here’s What You Need To Know

Kaiser Permanente is ramping up the distribution of COVID-19 vaccination for senior members in a development being welcomed in the Bay Area and across California.

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GOP Working to Block Biden’s Health Care Pick; Dems Unfazed

President Joe Biden’s pick for health secretary, Xavier Becerra, told senators Tuesday that tackling the coronavirus pandemic will be his first priority if confirmed, but he also pledged to work to expand health insurance coverage, curb prescription drug costs and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in medical care.

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