Policy and Legislation
Lonny Shavelson's practice will be focused on consulting not only with physicians whose patients request aid-in-dying, but also with patients themselves. Shavelson worries that patients may seek aid-in-dying because they are in pain. So first, he would like all his patients to be enrolled in hospice care.
The Food and Drug Administration removed an obstacle from of its "compassionate use" policy this month, eliminating some paperwork that physicians must do to obtain experimental drugs for some patients with immediately life-threatening illnesses.
Accountable care organizations in Medicare's Shared Savings program will now be held to regional spending benchmarks and not national ones, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday, responding to criticism that the earlier rules made it too difficult for strong-performing providers to see savings.
The state Senate this week rejected legislation that would have required medical practitioners to notify their patients if they were on probation for serious infractions.
In an effort to get or keep a good performance rating from the federal government, transplant centers have been labeling some patients "too sick to transplant" and dropping from the waitlist some who may been viable candidates, researchers found. In addition, despite removing more sick patients from the waiting list, one-year survival rates for patients who received transplants didn't improve.
If you're one of the nearly 44 million Americans estimated to have a mental health condition, the 2010 health law is supposed to help you get treatment. Yet actually getting that help depends, new research suggests, on who you are and, to an extent, on your racial background. While more people overall are getting mental health care, it's still harder to do if you are not white.
In total spending, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday, the bill would increase spending by $50 million over four years beginning in 2017, but spending would end up decreasing by $14 million through 2026, the CBO said.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. is leaving California's insurance exchange at the end of this year, state officials confirmed Tuesday.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is revising its policy to include shared savings ACOs in its upcoming Comprehensive Primary Care Plus program.
Issues can arise when patient information isn't shared with family and friends, either because medical staff decide to withhold it or patients themselves choose to restrict who can receive information about their care.