California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Friday that, after a six-year investigation, he has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Sacramento-based Sutter Health in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the health-care company has used its market power to control prices and exclude competition.

The CMS finalized a rule Monday giving Medicare Advantage plans a 3.4% pay hike in 2019. That's well above the 1.84% bump the agency initially proposed and higher that the 2.95% increase for 2018.

A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, released Tuesday, found that 61 percent of people enrolled in marketplace plans are satisfied with their insurance choices and that a majority say they are not paying more this year compared with last year’s premium costs.

California is among a group of states that have taken drug prices into their own hands, with lawmakers last year passing a bill aimed at shining new light on the pricing process. Now, the state is starting to see early results. 

Sarah Hesketh of the California Association of Public Hospitals — which represents 21 hospitals that are all both disproportionately reliant on Medicaid and enrolled in 340B — said that should providers decide to stay enrolled in 340B to get discounts for their Medicare patients they would continue to be subject to the 340B provider rules banning them from group negotiations for lower drug prices. This would have the unintended consequence of hurting the providers who care for the most Medicaid patients.

A California lawmaker is seeking to rein in addiction treatment centers and dialysis providers accused of profiteering off vulnerable patients by collecting millions of dollars in inflated medical claims.