Kaiser Health News
Shelley Rouillard, director of the state Department of Managed Health Care, said she reached an agreement with Aetna that should help keep future rate increases to a minimum and improve the quality of patient care.
Less than a decade ago, telemedicine was mainly used by hospitals and clinics for secure doctor-to-doctor consultations. But today, telemedicine has become a more common method for patients to receive routine care at home or wherever they are -- often on their cellphones or personal computers.
More than 1,200 people died of an overdose in Georgia in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with opioid drugs frequently implicated in those deaths. That's a 10 percent increase over the previous year. Georgia has put a one-year moratorium on issuing licenses to clinics that use medicine to treat people addicted to heroin or painkillers.
Tens of thousands of American lives could be saved each year with a concerted national effort to emulate what top military and civilian trauma centers are doing, a prestigious panel of top medical experts reported Friday.
A program that has helped seniors understand the many intricacies of Medicare as well as save them millions of dollars would be eliminated by a budget bill overwhelmingly approved last week by the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
The state insurance department doesn't have the authority to thwart the merger on its own, but Jones' recommendation could carry considerable weight in Washington and hinder the companies' efforts to win federal antitrust approval.
In an analysis presented Tuesday, the California Public Retirement System's staff lauded the goal of controlling prescription drug prices, but it warned of possible resistance -- or even retaliation -- by pharmaceutical companies.
The CalPERs staff also noted that implementation of the drug price proposition could unravel the whole purchasing and distribution network the agency has in place.
The federal push reflects the continuing concern over the nation's rate of unintended pregnancies, which is one of the highest among developed countries. The costs are significant not only for the families involved but also for the federal and state governments.
In its June report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission warned that rising drug costs and other factors have helped drive Medicare Part D spending up nearly 60 percent from 2007 to 2014.
Next year's premiums for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act could rise more than in past years in most markets and declines might be rare, according to a preliminary analysis of insurers' plans.