Policy and Legislation
Arizona is again allowing enrollment in the state's Children's Health Insurance Program known as KidsCare, six years after enrollment was frozen, according to an announcement Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is in the spotlight this week as the man Donald Trump has picked to be his running mate. Pence's decisions about health and health care in Indiana have drawn attention from within and outside the state. His record could be important in November, because Trump doesn't have a legislative record at all.
Nineteen states have yet to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, and a new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows just how much enrollment would increase if they did: 7.8 to 8.8 million, while the number of uninsured would decline between 4.1 and 5 million, the research found.
Pathologists at a dozen hospitals in the state are part of a pilot project -- the first of its kind in the United States -- in which they are reporting cancer diagnoses in close to real-time to the California Cancer Registry. And they are using standardized electronic forms to make their reporting more consistent and accurate.
Covered California, the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange, said Tuesday that its premiums will balloon by a statewide average of 13.2 percent next year -- more than triple the roughly 4 percent increases in each of the previous two years.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report to Congress wherein it stated that HIPAA serves traditional healthcare well and continues to support national priorities for interoperable health information with its media-neutral privacy rule, but that the scope of HIPAA is limited.
If the law doesn't become too complicated, the CMS chief said it will lead to better care and happier doctors.
The new rule hopes to drive the mass transition to value-based reimbursement, with doctors getting paid based on the quality of their work and the steps they take to improve their practices.
Nearly half of U.S. physicians are unfamiliar with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, also known as MACRA, according to a new survey of 600 doctors by research and consulting giant Deloitte.
The American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals voiced opposition to the public healthcare option that President Obama suggested and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has since supported.