Susan Morse
The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bill repealing the bulk of the Affordable Care Act in a vote of 52 to 47 that largely went along party lines.
The case hinges on Vermont legislation requiring all administrators of self-insured benefit plans to regularly submit data on medical claims, pharmacy claims, member eligibility, provider and other information for use in the state's unified healthcare database.
Though the outgoing governor of Kentucky and other supporters of the president's Affordable Care Act have been critical of a pledge made by incoming governor Matt Bevin to abolish the state exchange in favor of switching to the federal marketplace, his plan may have little effect on consumers.
Prescription drug spending was fueled largely by new medicines, particularly for specialty drugs such as those used to treat hepatitis C.
The letter is an effort to continue limiting the amount of assistance insurers can obtain from the government to lessen losses they sustain under the Affordable Care Act.
From 2010 to 2014, there's been 2.1 million fewer hospital-acquired conditions; 87,000 fewer hospital-acquired condition related deaths; and $19.8 billion in costs have been averted, according to CMS Deputy Director Patrick Conway.
The state's only health insurance co-op will shut down operations on December 31, after failing to find additional financing, Meritus officials announced November 25.
The former CFO of a Long Beach hospital in California, two orthopedic surgeons and two others have been charged in relation to a $600 million fraudulent billings scheme involving illegal referrals of thousands of patients for spinal surgeries.
Halfway through the open enrollment period, another half million consumers signed up in the federal marketplace during the week of November 15-21, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Pharmaceutical company Novartis will pay $370 million to settle claims that it gave kickbacks to specialty pharmacies in exchange for recommending two of its drugs, the U.S. Justice Department Southern District of New York announced this week.