Policy and Legislation
Don Berwick, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and president emeritus of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement will join the board of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, state Attorney General Maura Healey announced this week.
The leaders of the Senate Special Committee on Aging Wednesday targeted the Daraprim spike hike by Turing Pharmaceutical founder Martin Shkreli during the first of a series of hearings investigating abrupt and dramatic price increases in prescription drugs that are no longer protected by patents.
With the signature still wet on the bill, the National Defense Authorization Act will provide $80 million for the construction of a new 102,000 square-foot medical facility in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
New Jersey's 63 nonprofit hospitals are facing millions in new municipal fees called "Community Service Contributions" each year if bipartisan legislation co-sponsored and just introduced by State Sens. Robert Singer, Steve Sweeney and Joseph Vitale becomes law.
Among uninsured individuals who are not exempt from the Affordable Care Act penalty, the average household fine for not having insurance in 2015 will be $661, rising to $969 per household in 2016, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
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.
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.
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.