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.
Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) on Monday cut the price of its Alzheimer’s drug by about half to $28,200 for an average weight person after facing slower-than-expected U.S. sales on complaints from hospitals that its high cost was not worth its benefits. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug, Aduhelm, in June to treat the brain-wasting ...
The head of a Senate panel that oversees Medicare says the Biden administration should use its legal authority to cut back a hefty premium increase soon hitting millions of enrollees, as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers call for action amid worries over rising inflation.
The Senate passed legislation late Thursday that delays nearly 10% in Medicare cuts set to take effect next year, giving providers a major boost. The Senate passed the bill by 59 to 35 on Thursday, sending the legislation to President Biden after a successful House vote earlier this week. The bill included a provision to ...
For years, drugmakers have targeted “weaknesses” in the U.S. healthcare system to reap dividends on older meds, The House Oversight Committee said Friday. The “outrageous prices” and “anticompetitive conduct” that dictate the market make a strong case for the passing of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which would allow Medicare to petition for ...
Lobbyists for drugmakers, pharmacists and large employers are blanketing Congress with calls, emails and advertisements, pressing lawmakers to rein in pharmaceutical middlemen, who they say are behind soaring drug costs.
Dive Brief: * New government data puts in stark relief how dramatically telehealth use exploded last year, with the share of Medicare visits conducted virtually skyrocketing from just 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020. * That’s a nearly 63-fold increase. Specialists like behavioral health providers saw the highest telehealth use relative to their ...
The California Medical Association (CMA) and the California Hospital Association (CHA) today sent a joint letter to the California Congressional Delegation, urging immediate action to eliminate or delay the Medicare payment cuts that are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2022. “California’s hospitals and physicians continue to provide critical health services to their patients and ...
Provider groups are urging the Biden administration to walk back several provisions in a surprise billing rule, including requirements for providers to offer good-faith estimates to certain patients and what they deem a flawed process for determining out-of-network charges. Providers and payers submitted comments on the interim final rule released back in October. The rule ...
Dive Brief: * Hospital groups are kicking their lobbying up a notch as 2022 approaches, looking to fend off scheduled cuts to Medicare’s provider pay. * Major hospital lobbies sent a letter on Monday to congressional leaders urging them to extend the moratorium on Medicare sequester cuts, and prevent the pay-as-you-go sequester from taking effect. ...
Of all the “bitter disappointments” he had as president, Harry Truman once wrote, the “one that has troubled me most, in a personal way,” was the failure to enact a national program that would assure all Americans “a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.” More than 75 years after Truman first ...