May 9, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Now, more hospitals and surgery centers are demanding patients pay in advance. Advance billing helps the facilities avoid hounding patients to settle up. Yet it is distressing patients who must come up with thousands of dollars … Read More
May 6, 2024
(Axios) – As Medicare Advantage grows bigger and bigger, there’s one area the industry and regulators haven’t figured out how to make work yet: hospice. Why it matters: The end-of-life care option is the only Medicare service that can’t be … Read More
May 6, 2024
(New York Times) – On Wednesday, Kendric Cromer, a 12-year-old boy from a suburb of Washington, became the first person in the world with sickle cell disease to begin a commercially approved gene therapy that may cure the condition. For … Read More
May 3, 2024
(Vox) – In the absence of politically difficult health care reform, activists and some state and local governments have set up medical debt relief programs, purchasing the debts of people in difficult financial circumstances for much less than face value … Read More
May 1, 2024
(Axios) – An influential national advisory group has called for women to start getting mammograms beginning at age 40, but only every two years — a recommendation that highlights a rift within the cancer community. Why it matters: The U.S. … Read More
April 29, 2024
(ProPublica) – Cigna tracks every minute that its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. Dr. Debby Day said her bosses cared more about being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your … Read More
April 24, 2024
(STAT News) – Federal regulators vastly under-enforced antitrust laws in the hospital sector in the last two decades, a new study finds. Why it matters: Unchecked mergers during a period of rapid consolidation represent a significant factor in rising health … Read More
April 22, 2024
(The Hill) – Contractors for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) cut access to tests for transplant patients that could show early signs of organ rejection despite expert physicians advising the opposite, a new report has found. (Read … Read More
April 22, 2024
April 17, 2024
(Reuters) – U.S. employers’ obligation to accommodate workers’ pregnancies also extends to abortions and the use of contraception, the U.S. agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws said on Monday. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) unveiled a rule to … Read More
April 17, 2024
April 15, 2024
(Los Angeles Times via MSN) – Obesity — like so many diseases — disproportionately affects people in racial and ethnic groups that have been marginalized by the U.S. healthcare system. A class of drugs that succeeds where so many others … Read More
April 15, 2024
April 11, 2024
(Axios) – Hospitals within months could get extra federal money to administer pricey new gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first CRISPR-based treatment. Why it matters: The Medicare proposal would provide more incentive to offer the multimillion-dollar gene … Read More
April 9, 2024
(New York Times) – The answer is a little-known data analytics firm called MultiPlan. It works with UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna and other big insurers to decide how much so-called out-of-network medical providers should be paid. It promises to help contain … Read More
April 8, 2024
(New York Times) – Since 2014, R.I.P. Medical Debt estimates that it has eliminated more than $11 billion of debt with the help of major donations from philanthropists and even city governments. In January, New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, … Read More
April 5, 2024
(CNBC) – CVS Health on Thursday said its drug plans will cover the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. at no cost for many health plan sponsors, a decision that could open the door for more people to … Read More
April 4, 2024
(STAT News) – Cochlear implants have successfully improved hearing loss for decades, but few people who qualify for an implant actually get it. Even in countries with universal healthcare, the adoption rates are dismal. Researchers are finding further disparities for … Read More
April 4, 2024
April 2, 2024
(NPR) – Some consumers covered by Affordable Care Act insurance plans are being switched from one plan to another without their express permission, potentially leaving them unable to see their doctors or fill prescriptions. Some face large IRS bills for … Read More
April 1, 2024
(Axios) – There’s been a major shift in what Americans say — or won’t say — about our weight. Why it matters: The blockbuster success of anti-obesity drugs is driving efforts to frame obesity as a chronic disease with clear … Read More
April 1, 2024
(USA Today) – If the Koncaks’ struggles with health care costs as older adults sound familiar, it’s because they are. Even with insurance, Americans struggle to pay for expenses like premiums, copayments, coinsurance, and uncovered health services. As a result, … Read More
March 29, 2024
March 28, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – The first major U.S. health insurers have agreed to start paying for the popular anti-obesity drug Wegovy for certain people on Medicare with heart-related conditions. CVS Health, Elevance Healthand Kaiser Permanente said they would cover Novo … Read More
March 27, 2024
(KFF News) – The toll the American health care system extracts is, in some respects, the price of extraordinary progress in medicine. But it’s also evidence of the poor fit between older adults’ capacities and the health care system’s demands. … Read More
