Medicare Medicaid Category

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.

Health Insurers Balk At Proposed Medicare Advantage Rates

CVS Health and Centene executives say newly proposed Medicare Advantage rates for 2025 aren’t “sufficient” and hinted they could cut benefits if the federal government finalizes the rates as is. Why it matters: More than half of Medicare enrollees are in private Medicare Advantage plans. The specter of potential cuts to seniors’ health care benefits in an election ...

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Alleged Medical Supply Scam Could Cost Medicare $2 Billion

Patients have been reporting mysterious claims to Medicare for months of catheters they never ordered or received, which led to a massive spike in billing the accounts of more than 450,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 2023.

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U.S. Makes Initial Offers in Medicare Drug Price Negotiations

The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it was sending initial offers to the makers of the first 10 prescription drugs that have been selected for price negotiations with Medicare under a landmark federal program intended to reduce drug spending.

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Cigna Sells Medicare Business To Health Care Services Corp. For $3.7 Billion

Health Care Service Corporation announced Wednesday that it will buy Cigna’s Medicare business. The $3.7 billion sale will see Health Care Service, the country’s largest customer-owned health insurer, take control of Cigna’s Medicare Advantage, Supplemental Benefits and Part D customers, as well as the CareAllies business that works with healthcare providers. Cigna’s Medicare plans cover over 3.6 million people, with 2.5 million ...

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Is Housing Health Care? State Medicaid Programs Increasingly Say ‘Yes’

States are plowing billions of dollars into a high-stakes health care experiment that’s exploding around the country: using scarce public health insurance money to provide housing for the poorest and sickest Americans. California is going the biggest, pumping $12 billion into an ambitious Medicaid initiative largely to help homeless patients find housing, pay for it, ...

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Hospital Lobbying Could Sink Effort To Trim Medicare Costs

Hospitals intensely lobbying to stop a bipartisan measure that would trim their Medicare payments are emphasizing how the policy may hobble already struggling rural hospitals. Why it matters: The hospitals’ argument is apparently resonating in the Senate — raising further doubts about whether Congress can overcome pressure from a politically powerful lobby to enact modest Medicare savings. ...

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HHS Releases Voluntary Cybersecurity Goals For The Healthcare Sector

The resources serve as a “step forward” as the agency looks to propose enforceable standards, HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm said in a statement.

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Diabetes Patients Lament Drugmaker’s Decision To Discontinue Levemir Insulin

After she was diagnosed at age 48 with Type 1 diabetes, Stacey Silverman muddled through her days with high blood sugar, fatigue and splitting headaches. Taking a long-acting form of insulin called Levemir, one of many types of the hormone on the market, resolved those blood sugar swings. Now the 55-year-old Dallas-area resident worries her ...

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Biden Administration Finalizes Medicare Prior Authorization Changes

Rule would require Medicare Advantage organizations, Medicaid and other government-sponsored health programs to include specific reasons for denying requests

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The High Cost Of Weight-Loss Drugs Is Threatening Coverage Altogether

With the price of GLP-1s reaching well over $1000 a month, local officials are warning that rising costs threaten to quickly drain government spending accounts.

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