Susan Morse
The Federal Trade Commission has moved to block a proposed merger of Advocate Health Care Network and NorthShore University HealthSystem, a decision the Chicago providers said they would fight.
CMS said 540 drugs had a 25-percent increase for $13.7 billion, or 11 percent of program costs.
Former Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, who was arrested last week on charges of securities fraud and who has been reviled for hiking the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent, has been terminated as CEO of KaloBios, the company announced Monday.
Thirty-two hospitals in 15 states, including the Cleveland Clinic and hospitals associated with the Community Health Systems, Tenet and Banner Health, are on the hook for $28 million to settle allegations they submitted false claims for inpatient care to perform minimally-invasive spinal surgery that could have been done in a less expensive outpatient setting, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Don Goldmann, chief medical and scientific officer for Institute of Healthcare Improvement, thinks the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to change its methodology for ranking providers by their number of hospital-acquired infections as many respected hospitals are seeing payment reductions in the program.
Rates not touched since economic downturn in 2008.
The U.S. House of Representatives has proposed a two-year suspension of the medical device tax and another two-year delay of the Cadillac tax on high-cost employer health plans.
The Obama administration has given last-minute health insurance shoppers a two-day extension to buy coverage through Healthcare.gov.
Congress on Wednesday is considering legislation to allow physicians working in ambulatory surgical centers to receive the same payment incentives for meaningful use of electronic health records as doctors in other settings.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday proposed new rules to discharge planning requirements for long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, critical access hospitals and home health agencies.