The political landscape for gay, lesbian, queer and especially transgender individuals has been fraught throughout 2022, with a wide range of anti-LGBTQ+ healthcare bills storming through state legislatures across the country. These include directives to prohibit gender-affirming healthcare services for minors in several states,...
The idea that housing has an integral place in patient health and wellness is no longer a hypothetical question. In recent years, the pivot to value-based care (VBC) and research into the impacts on social determinants of health (SDOH) on patient outcomes has been quite clear. But the catch now, in the contemporary American healthcare...
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with the American Hospital Association (AHA) against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a case that challenged a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule that would have cut outpatient drug payments for hospitals that treat Medicaid enrollees and...
As fallout continues from the leaked Supreme Court (SCOTUS) opinion on Dodd v. Jackson Women's Health, in which it appears that the court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade (1974), policymakers and industry stakeholders are lining up to support for reproductive healthcare.
The American Medical Association released a statement on the leaked...
A report last week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) highlights the challenges healthcare workers (HCWs) faced during the pandemic, including exhaustion, burnout and trauma.
The report, Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Hospital and...
The No Surprises Act, a law that aims to protect Americans covered by private health plans from receiving surprise medical bills relating to emergency services or non-emergency services from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities, has been met with trouble since its implementation at the beginning of the year.
In February,...National News
Under the Biden administration and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the national push to improve community access to health resources has gained steam and policy decisions reflect the public demand for greater resources.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $105 million grant to strengthen...CMS Rules
On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) filed the Fiscal Year 2023 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Prospective Payment System (PPS) Proposed Rule. The reimbursements include a 3.9% increase to industry reimbursements, but in aggregate the impact of payment policies would result in a decrease of $320 million in...
COVID-19 has fallen out of the national spotlight, as cases and death counts fall week-over-week. But there are still challenges present. The threat of the BA.2 variant that caused a post-Omicron resurgence in Europe demonstrated COVID-19 still requires vigilance, effort and funding to overcome.
In Arizona this week, there were 6,840...
Long COVID still remains elusive to medical and public health officials, and as cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. subside, researchers and the federal government are turning their attention to the lasting effects of COVID-19 infection.
Some studies on Long COVID estimate that 30% of people who catch the virus will experience long-term...Arizona News
Sexual and reproductive healthcare in the U.S. has received a barrage of policy changes and proposed legislation this spring, specifically on the topics of maternal healthcare, anti-abortion legislation and laws that seek to curb treatment for transgender children.
Maternal Health Care
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services...
March 23 was the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) . The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a report to highlight the ways in which the ACA is "the strongest it has ever been" due to the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and other efforts by the Biden administration to strengthen Americans' access to...
In late February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that after a full year of review, it would overhaul the Global Professional Direct Contracting Model and create the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health (REACH) model. The redesign was intended to address...Government
On Tuesday, March 15, President Joe Biden signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill that included a number of health-related provisions. This includes financial assistance for a biomedical research agency, an extension of Medicare telehealth waivers and funding to address concerns regarding maternal mortality.
Notably, House Speaker...
The official number of global deaths from COVID-19 surpassed six million on Monday, 4% of which were recorded in the last month. The United States is very close to reaching a million deaths on its own, and Arizona's death count exceeded the 28,000 marker this week.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19...
The public health emergency (PHE) related to the COVID-19 pandemic is currently slated to expire on April 15, but is expected to be renewed for an additional 90 days. State Medicaid programs are concerned that they will not be granted enough time to complete Medicaid enrollee redeterminations, which have been paused for the duration of...National News
The Biden administration has pledged to provide Americans with better in-roads to health coverage and to even the playing field for people at a systemic disadvantage from receiving adequate healthcare. This week, a number of policy decisions highlight the administration's commitment to these goals in Medicare coverage, health equity and...National News
On February 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would release an additional $560 million in Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments for healthcare providers who have reported losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds will be released by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and...National News
A federal judge for the eastern district of Texas struck down a controversial aspect of the No Surprises Act last week, leaving in place protections for patients but siding with providers that a qualifying payment amount is not the appropriate out-of-network rate.
The No Surprises act formally went into effect on January 1 of this...National News
On February 1, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Office of Health Policy filed an issue brief on a national survey that found disparities in use of telehealth services in 2021.
The survey polled 808,368 American adults and found that nearly a quarter of...
