In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed and the Legislature approved a tax penalty on Californians without health insurance. That money was supposed to be used to lower costs for those insured through Covered California, but that has only happened once.

Spring heralds the start of rate review season: that time of year when state departments of insurance assess health insurers’ proposed rates for the next year and determine whether their plans comply with federal and state laws. Many state insurance departments now have a new responsibility as part of that process

The Drug Enforcement Administration has asked the White House for more time to finalize draft rules that proposed reinstating stricter limits requiring doctors to evaluate patients in-person before prescribing certain drugs — like Adderall and opioid use disorder treatment — via telehealth. Driving the news: DEA administrator Anne Milgram said on Wednesday that temporarily keeping the pandemic-era flexibilities in place would allow ...

The best part of remote work, from a mental health perspective, may be the commute. An hourlong slog to and from work pleases no one, and it is perhaps the largest negative associated with the nation’s gradual return to the office as the pandemic wanes. Nearly 30 percent of all work remains remote in the United States, ...

Medical experts urged Congress to hold insurance companies accountable for inaccurate medical directories that can hamper access for patients seeking mental health treatments. The problem, referred to as a “ghost network,” occurs when health insurance providers ostensibly provide coverage, but direct customers to nonexistent or unavailable doctors and providers. “In my view, it’s a breach ...

The popularity and utility of telehealth has made it a more common form of healthcare delivery since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and telepsychiatry is one of the most used applications for the remote care technology. But the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General has found that an estimated $580 million ...