When it comes to passing legislation to mandate or urge more people to get COVID-19 vaccines, there seems to be a common refrain at the California Capitol: Maybe next year. Lawmakers still have months left in their 2021 session, but an ambitious slate of vaccine bills proposed by Democrats is on life support. Its two ...

After years of multimillion-dollar battles over medical malpractice awards, California legislators  passed a deal increasing the monetary amount patients could claim in lawsuits while also averting a costly November ballot battle. The deal, which passed both chambers with near unanimous votes, replaced a ballot measure with legislation raising the cap for a patient’s “non-economic damages,” or ...

Congress has backed off "Medicare for All" for the time being. But legislators in several states are now taking up the charge.

Remote work has resulted in a boost in productivity, according to a new report, but worker burnout has also skyrocketed. That’s according to a survey of 175 HR executives in the U.S. recently released by The Conference Board. Sixty-two percent of organizations with primarily remote workforces said they’ve seen productivity grow since the start of the pandemic, the report said. ...

When she was Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner, Jessica Altman, the appointee of a Democratic governor, often bumped against the political limits of health care policy in a state where Republicans controlled the legislature. Despite the constraints of a divided government, Altman played a key role in persuading lawmakers in 2019 to join Gov. Tom Wolf in passing ...

Employers and private insurance plans in 2020 paid hospitals 224% of what Medicare paid for the same services, with rates for inpatient and outpatient care varying widely from site to site, a new report from RAND finds.