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.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Thursday said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removing language from its website refuting the theory that vaccines are linked to autism was “deeply troubling.” Late on Wednesday, the CDC walked back its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism. A CDC web page that previously stated “there is no link” ...
Optum Rx will reduce reauthorizations on 40 additional medications Jan. 1, surpassing initial goals set out earlier this year. The pharmacy benefit management arm of UnitedHealth Group first revealed earlier this year that it was aiming to reduce reauthorizations, a specific model for prior authorization, by up to 25%. The new additions bring the total ...
Insurers and drug companies facing dire threats to their bottom lines this year from President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress had to make a choice: Stand and fight, or go to ground and cut some deals. Insurers fought in a bid to kill the threat; drugmakers cut deals to mitigate the damage. The early ...
While the FDA is streamlining regulation of copycat versions of the expensive drugs that millions take for arthritis, cancer, and other diseases, the U.S. patent office is making it harder for the cheaper medicines to get on the market, industry officials say. These officials were thrilled Oct. 29 when FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced the ...
A US congressional commission is ringing alarm bells about China's growing dominance over America's drug supply, saying it is putting the country's health in the hands of an adversarial nation.
Two leading organizations representing Medicaid managed care plans are offering several key suggestions to the Trump administration for managing the rollout of work requirements in the program. In the letter (PDF), experts at Medicaid Health Plans of America (MHPA) and the Association for Community-Affiliated Plans (ACAP) urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow ...
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is launching an effort to streamline the approval process for cheaper alternative “biosimilar” versions of biologic drugs as a way to curb health costs. The agency published a draft guidance for industry Wednesday that would potentially make it faster and less costly for companies to develop biologics and bring them to market, leading to increased competition and lower drug costs for patients. The ...
The Trump administration is moving to overrule any state laws that may protect consumers’ credit reports from medical debt and other debt issues. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has drafted what’s known as an interpretative rule related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, interpreting the law in a way that says the FCRA should preempt any state ...
As shopping season opens for Affordable Care Act plans in some states, customers are confronting staggering costs for their health insurance next year. The extra federal subsidies put in place in 2021 that made coverage more affordable for millions of people will expire at the end of this year unless a gridlocked and idle Congress acts.
Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” alumnus who started Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, told senators on Wednesday that he thinks price transparency is critical to helping employers bring down the cost of health benefits. But Cuban said his Dallas-based online discount pharmacy is using its deep knowledge of health care pricing and ...