Starting Jan. 1, ground ambulance operators will be barred from balance billing, thanks to a new law signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. California is the 14th state to provide some protection against balance billing for ground ambulance rides.

The American Medical Association called on insurance companies, employers, and government programs to cover obesity treatments even as many remain reluctant to pay for them, fearing the costs of covering the drugs at a mass scale. The large physicians’ lobbying group voted to pass a resolution at the association’s interim meeting Monday saying it will ...

For the more than 100 million American adults with obesity, medications such as semaglutide (known by its brand names Wegovy and Ozempic) and tirzepatide, a version of which the Food and Drug Administration approved last week, could be transformative. These drugs are remarkably effective in reducing weight, managing diabetes and reducing cardiovascular complications. But there is still much we don’t ...

Prior authorization is the most burdensome regulatory issue facing medical groups, with 89% saying it is very or extremely burdensome, according to a Nov. 13 report from the Medical Group Management Association. The MGMA’s annual regulatory report surveyed executives from more than 350 group practices, according to the report. Sixty percent of respondents are in practices with ...

The U.S. spends huge amounts of money on health care that does little or nothing to help patients, and may even harm them. In Colorado, a new analysis shows that the number of tests and treatments conducted for which the risks and costs exceed the benefits has barely budged despite a decade-long attempt to tamp ...

The gap in life expectancy between men and women in the United States grew to its widest in nearly 30 years, driven mainly by more men dying of Covid and drug overdoses, according to a new study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. In 2021, women had a life expectancy of 79.3 years, compared with 73.5 years ...