Policy and Legislation
Money will help provide hands-on training tailored to small practices, especially those that practice in historically under-resourced areas.
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.
St. Joseph Health, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals are joining forces to enhance and expand neonatal and pediatric services, the organizations announced this week.
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 Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision today in the case of Universal Health Services vs. Escobar that could expand the use of the implied certification theory as a basis for liability under the False Claims Act, with some saying it could breed more lawsuits against providers.
Following up on last week's announcement on strengthening the marketplace risk pool, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday announced $22 million in funding for state insurance regulators to enforce Affordable Care Act consumer protections.
At its annual meeting this week, the American Medical Association adopted new policies encourage physicians to co-prescribe naloxone to patients at risk of an overdose; promote timely and appropriate access to non-opioid and non-pharmacologic treatments for pain; and support efforts to delink payments to healthcare facilities with patient satisfaction scores relating to the evaluation and management of pain.
Physicians at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association have adopted guidance for communities on selecting among light emitting diode options, which aims to minimize the potential harmful human health and environmental effects. The group claims that conversion to improper LED technology can have adverse consequences.