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.
California’s largest health plan group this week declared its opposition to both of the healthcare special session bills that would impose new taxes on managed-care organizations, the latest sign that a replacement for a soon-to-expire health plan tax is unlikely to emerge before lawmakers adjourn next week. Health plan taxation is the focus of the ...
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – A Democratic state lawmaker on Friday dropped his effort to allow people who are in the country illegally to buy private insurance through the state’s health insurance marketplace. Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, removed language seeking a federal waiver that would allow immigrants to purchase unsubsidized coverage through Covered California. His ...
White House budget director Shaun Donovan called for a “more aggressive strategy” to thwart improper government payments to doctors, hospitals and insurance companies in a previously undisclosed letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell earlier this year. Government health care programs covering millions of Americans waste billions of tax dollars every year ...
A patent law change sought by the pharmaceutical industry could cost federal health-care programs $1.3 billion over a decade by delaying new generic medicines, an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office found this summer, according to people familiar with the matter. Pharmaceutical trade groups are asking Congress to exempt drug patents from being challenged through ...
Federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and exchange subsidies will rise from 5.2% of the country’s economic output in 2015 to 6.2% in 2025, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday inupdated budget projections (PDF). The CBO said in its March report that those healthcare programs would constitute 6.1% of the country’s ...
As some of the nation’s largest health insurers plan to merge, a new report raises fresh concern over the lack of competition in the private Medicare market.
A new poll finds Americans worried about medication costs and broadly supporting government action to curb drug prescription prices.
Besides a special session on Medi-Cal, the big health care issue waiting action by lawmakers when they return from summer recess today is the high cost of new specialized prescription drugs.
The debate over new taxes and fees - a dominant theme in the final weeks of the legislative session - kicked off Monday, with some Democratic lawmakers calling for a new tax on health insurance plans to pay for Medi-Cal and other social services.
For years, Republicans have openly pined for pushing Medicare further into the private sector.