Medicare & Medicaid
News articles in this section include actions by federal regulators like the CMS and HHS, as well as information on Medicare and state Medicaid coverage and benefits.
When Fabiola Ortiz heard California had granted health coverage to poor children lacking legal immigration status, she felt grateful. Since arriving in the U.S. illegally 12 years ago, she has taken her two youngest children to the doctor only for required school physicals and relied on home remedies for everything else.
State lawmakers last week convened the first hearing of a governor-ordered legislative special session on health care funding.
Los Angeles-based managed care provider Health Net is being acquired by Centene Corp. in a deal valued at $6.8 billion. The deal could mean job losses at Health Net offices in Rancho Cordova, where more than 2,400 of the Woodland Hills-based health insurer's employees work.
On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a $167.6 billion state budget that includes funding to expand Medi-Cal to undocumented children, as well as other health care implications, the Los Angeles Times‘ “PolitiCal” reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program. The budget will take effect July 1 (Megerian, “PolitiCal,” Los Angeles Times, 6/24). Background on Budget ...
Donna Miles didn’t feel like getting dressed and driving to her physician’s office or to a retailer’s health clinic near her Cincinnati home. For several days, she had thought she had thrush, a mouth infection that made her tongue sore and discolored with raised white spots. When Miles, 68, awoke on a wintry February morning ...
Before the Affordable Care Act, older adults who couldn’t afford to buy their own health insurance would count the days until their 65th birthday, when Medicare would kick in. Now, 10,000 Americans hit that milestone every day, but for some who have coverage through the ACA’s insurance marketplaces, Medicare may not be the obvious next ...
The House voted Tuesday to abolish a cost-cutting board under ObamaCare that has drawn criticism from members of both parties. Lawmakers voted 244-154 to abolish what is known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The board is tasked with coming up with Medicare cuts if spending rises above a certain threshold, but has been criticized as ...
Despite having survived a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government’s health insurance markets face weighty struggles as they try to keep prices under control, entice more consumers and encourage quality medical care. The government’s insurance markets – as well as more than a dozen run by states — have been operating for ...
State employees and covered family members will have health coverage for gender reassignment and other transgender procedures under a new insurance policy that takes effect July 1. The Public Employee Benefits Program board voted in November to remove language in the state’s self-funded and HMO plans that specifically excluded therapy for gender dysphoria. Brock Maylath, ...
A California lawsuit accuses two surgeons and four hospitals in Las Vegas of participating in a massive health care fraud scheme that involved implanting counterfeit spinal hardware into unsuspecting patients. The case, filed in February by dozens of insurance companies in Los Angeles County Superior Court, was recently unsealed. According to the lawsuit, California-based Spinal ...