Policy and Legislation
Marketplace premiums rose by 8 percent last year, well below the double-digit rise predicted by some observers of Obamacare, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report released Tuesday.
Lawmakers in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services acting administrator Andy Slavitt to delay releasing the latest quarterly Hospital Compare rankings over concerns that the methodology used to rate hospitals fails to account for a patient pool's social and income-level standings.
The first Zika vaccine candidate may enter initial clinical trials in September, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.
California Hospital Association is staunchly opposed to Assembly bill, saying that finding the right placement for a patient is much more complex than identifying an empty bed, and a registry could actually hinder efforts to get patients appropriate treatment.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday launched a new risk-based primary care initiative that it hopes will accelerate the movement towards value-based reimbursement for medical practices.
UnitedHealth Group has decided to quit the exchange market in two states, Georgia and Arkansas, according to published reports Friday.
Facing new measures by the U.S. Treasury to thwart tax-evading deals, drugmaker Pfizer has officially jettisoned its $160 billion agreement to buy Allergan, according to published reports.
Nearly a third of people without health insurance, about 10 million, live in families that received a federal earned income tax credit (EITC) in 2014, according to a new study. But the Internal Revenue Service doesn't tell those tax filers that their low and moderate incomes likely mean their households qualify for Medicaid or subsidies to buy coverage on the insurance exchanges. That's a lost opportunity to identify people who are eligible but not receiving government assistance to gain health coverage, the researchers say.
The total 3.05 percent rate is less than the total 3.55 percent CMS proposed in February.
In a few months, California will begin providing full Medi-Cal coverage to all low-income children -- regardless of their immigration status.