The Biden administration has finalized proposed payment rates for inpatient services in the coming year, and they’re not likely to be welcomed by hospitals. Initially, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 2.6% payment increase for 2025, which providers decried as inadequate. In the final Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule, that ...

Cigna CEO David Cordani mounted a defense of pharmacy benefit managers during the company’s earnings call on Thursday morning as regulators and critics turn up the heat on the industry. Cigna owns Express Scripts, which along with CVS’ Caremark and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx, dominate the PBM space. Cordani said that pharmacological innovation is a ...

Amazon is still so enthusiastic about the idea of expanding its health care operations that it accepted $1 billion in projected 2024 health care losses back in December, according to Eugene Kim of Business Insider. Kim reported, based on internal documents, that Amazon also projected that health care unit revenue would increase 30%, to $3 ...

Technology that identifies people at risk of a heart attack in the next 10 years has been hailed as “game changing” by scientists. The artificial intelligence (AI) model detects inflammation in the heart that does not show up on CT scans, which involve a combination of X-rays and computer technology. A pilot project, supported by ...

The government subsidy to Part D plans is shifting from being reconciled on the backend to a larger risk-adjusted payment upfront.

Premiums for health insurance sold through the state’s marketplace will increase by nearly 8% in 2025, Covered California officials announced Wednesday.