On Wednesday, three Republican legislators sided with Democrats in the Arizona House to vote to repeal that 1864 abortion ban that was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court two weeks ago.
The Arizona Supreme Court's decision sent shockwaves across the country and brought the state's abortion debate into the national limelight. According...
The Biden administration finalized rules that would increase transparency and increase protections for Medicaid members in managed care plans. It also finalized the Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services Rule on Monday that requires home care providers to use a minimum of 80% of Medicaid payments to pay aides and nurses.
The new...
A new study demonstrates that hospital mergers increase prices without improving quality of care or improving patient outcomes, even if the merging hospitals are far apart.
According to STAT News, it's contributing to the idea that mergers are directly causing price increases. As hospital systems increasingly expand to places where...
Late last year the Cigna-Humana merger fell through after the two sides couldn't agree on a price and a hostile antitrust regulatory environment and industry opposition to consolidation ended the deal, but with Humana stock down 32% and Cigna's up 36% the math now works for a possible deal.
In December 2023 the two companies announced...
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced approval of a final rule which bans employers from issuing noncompete clauses, which would have serious effects in the healthcare industry and especially for hospitals.
Hospitals, physician groups, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers use noncompete agreements to keep former...
The new joint venture will expand breast imaging services throughout the Tucson market. The collaboration encompasses Northwest Healthcare's existing mammography centers at Northwest Medical Center, Oro Valley Hospital and Northwest Medical Center Houghton, with future plans to expand into additional communities to improve access to...
A new report from the Commonwealth Fund found that health equity doesn't exist in America; Black Americans
and American Indians are more likely to die from preventable and treatable conditions than other groups. The report also found Arizona has more severe racial and ethnic disparities than other states in the Southwest.
In its...
Read more about the strategies and solutions Lumeris engages to successfully navigate the Medicare Advantage (MA) market in this white paper that explores three key pillars to ensure proactive management of populations to predict swings in local utilization to drive better financial performance while delivering high-quality care and...
The St. Louis-based Lumeris is privately held and has a wide portfolio including its own 5-star Medicare Advantage plan in six states, capitated fee arrangements with payers including MA giants Humana and CVS, and contracts with ACOs in both the MSSP and REACH program.
The funding round was led by Deerfield Management, a longstanding...
Arizona garnered national attention last week when the state's Supreme Court determined that 1864 abortion ban that criminalizes the practice and makes no exception other than to save the life of the mother may stand as state law.
Governor Katie Hobbs issued a statement in response invoking the executive order she signed last year...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued proposed rules for the FY 2025 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) payment system. The agency proposes raising payments and the industry decried the boost as insufficient.
Hospitals will receive a 2.6% increase or $2.9 billion across...
The independent physician is an endangered species due to rapid corporate consolidation, according to a new report.
More than three-quarters of all U.S. doctors are employed by a corporate entity, be it hospitals, health insurers, private equity or some other corporate form. Healthcare Dive explains that much of the acceleration...
The Massachussets Health Policy Commission will meet Thursday and discuss a hotly contested sale of a physician contractor to OptumCare in an arrangement that could flag antitrust laws.
Stewardship Health Inc.'s Steward Health Care Network currently employs primary care physicians for contracting in nine states. The deal could add...
The government is publicly reacting to the disruption in healthcare services caused by the Change Healthcare cyberattack and subsequent extended outage, but tangible consequences for UnitedHealth Group have yet to emerge.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee met this week to discuss the attack, but according to Modern Healthcare,...
The practice will now operate under the name Banner – University Medicine Orthopedic Clinic at 1555 E. River Road in Tucson.
The clinic's orthopedic team treats adults and children, as well as competitive athletes, including professional, college, and high school athletes and sports teams. The University Orthopedic Specialists...
As CMS takes swift actions to protect consumers from unauthorized agents and brokers switching their ACA Marketplace plans, a lawsuit was filed against insurance agency call centers, former President Trump did an about-face on the ACA, and a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides policy solutions to...
Since the start of the Medicaid unwinding last April, Arizona has dis-enrolled 611,144 members, more than half for procedural reasons, including nearly 211,000 children, and approved renewals for nearly 2 million. Nationally, Medicaid dis-enrollments total 20 million for the year, including 5 million children, with more than two-thirds...
Last week, the popular pediatric health system announced that after a nationwide search, it hired its current Division Chief of Emergency Medicine, Blake Bulloch, MD as its new chief medical officer (CMO) and Liz Zorn, MD and Kelly Kelleher, MD as associate CMOs. This week, Phoenix Children's also announced it promoted to Physician in...
On Monday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General Christi A. Grimm provided testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that included the federal government has demonstrated significant problems with risk adjustment in Medicare Advantage, raising...National News
This week, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) released a playbook on voluntary best practices as part of their efforts together to advance the adoption of value-based care arrangements in the private sector to improve the quality, equity, and...
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court held that the state could implement a highly restrictive recent law that would all but completely outlaw the practice of abortion in the state. Not to be outdone, the Arizona Supreme Court resurrected an archaic law that predates statehood by fifty years to all but completely outlaw the practice of...
A new study from health policy analysis group the Commonwealth Foundation has found that public health insurance plans, also known as state public option-style plans, are moving forward in reducing consumer costs.
Colorado, Nevada and Washington have all adopted similar public option legislation that requires private insurers to offer...
Two wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against the state of Arizona for alleged mismanagement of sober living homes that led to the deaths of Indigenous men.
Investigators into the sober living home fraud scandal have said that Indigenous people were targeted for their unique payer status and social vulnerability. Under the...
Assisted living providers received a major regulatory blow from the Arizona Legislature this week after it passed an overhaul on best practices, training requirements and penalties for delinquent facilities. And hospitals net a win as a bill championed by the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) moves out of the Senate...