Last Thursday, the United States formally withdrew from the World Health Organization in a move that many in the scientific community are calling "dangerous." Historically, the United States had been the most influential member of the 194-member organization and was its largest financial contributor.
The withdrawal was announced in a...
On Tuesday, senior members of Congress announced a deal to fund the government for 2026. The bill would resurrect a number of bipartisan measures that were poised to pass in late 2024 but were undermined by then-President-elect Donald Trump.
The new bill would extend Medicare telehealth and hospital-at-home waivers for two and five...
President Donald Trump has ordered Congress to forgo the promised vote on extending ACA subsidies that convinced eight Senate Democrats to vote to end the government shutdown last week. Instead, the president has proposed sending subsidy money "directly to consumers," as Republicans rush to create a plan that could meet that...
Last week, President Donald Trump announced agreements with pharmaceutical giants Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to reduce the cost of brand-name GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and expand coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. The deal essentially trades high, customer-limiting prices for volume through access to the Medicare market. In exchange,...
Hospitals are bracing for the incoming effects of Medicaid cuts contained in the Trump administration's signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed earlier this year. Health systems are beginning to review pediatric care in preparation for Medicaid cuts driving emergency department overcrowding.
In hospital...Arizona News
On Monday, Republicans in the U.S. Senate released their own version of legislation for President Donald Trump's agenda. The bill would cut Medicaid even more aggressively than the bill passed by the House of Representatives but eases up on subjects that are not health related.
The new proposal released by the Senate Finance Committee...
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a reconciliation package with significant changes for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace as part of what President Donald Trump's calls a "big beautiful" spending vision for his second term in office.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the part...
The federal government's assault on LGBTQ people and their access to healthcare services continued this week as the Trump administration ignores an injunction, the Supreme Court accepts a case on conversion therapy and researchers sue over the removal of articles from a government website.
Beginning on day one of his second term,...Featured
While Congressional Republicans continue to negotiate a package bill for President Donald Trump's second-term agenda, House Republicans have advanced a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. The bill that moved to the Senate dropped a correction to Medicare physician payment cuts that had been promised by Republican...Arizona News
Avian flu continues to spread and impact American agriculture and its workforce, raising concerns of a pandemic for which the U.S. may be woefully unprepared.
A second strain of the H5N1 avian flu infected a dairy employee in Nevada, and although the worker was not hospitalized, the newer strain has been previously transmitted to...
Despite the efforts to dismantle any trace of the Biden administration elsewhere, the Trump administration intends to continue the Medicare drug price negotiation program, including the 15 drugs proposed for the second round of negotiations as one of President Joe Biden's last acts in office.
The Trump Centers for Medicare and...
In the Senate Finance committee confirmation hearing for the Department of Health and Human Services, anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) was championed by Republicans despite being unable to answer basic questions about his plans for Medicaid and other payer programs. He is expected to attend the Senate Health, Education,...
As one of the last acts of President Joe Biden's term, the administration listed the prescription pharmaceuticals that would be included in the second round of the program that allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate what it pays for certain drugs.
The announcement was made earlier than the...
As one of his first acts, President Donald Trump issued an executive order announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The executive order calls for a pause in funding to the WHO, recalls and reassigns federal personnel and contractors working with the organization and calls on officials to find new...National News
As President-elect Donald Trump's election looms, hospitals and industry advocates are left wondering what will happen to one of the last rules implemented by his first administration: the hospital price transparency rule.
The first Trump administration's rule required hospitals to post coherent pricing information online. Still, it's...Arizona News
A year-end drama is raging on Capitol Hill as Republican lawmakers debate raising the debt ceiling in a major piece of budget legislation that includes concessions to Democrats including healthcare policies like telehealth and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) regulation.
Late Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice...Arizona News
Arizona is one of several states at risk of cutting their Medicaid expansion enrollees should the Trump administration cut federal funding due to a trigger law that will end Medicaid expansion if federal funding drops. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System counts nearly 650,000 members in its expansion population.
The other...
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump delivered their final pitches to the American public this week ahead of election day on November 5. Both candidates refined their positions on healthcare policy and the people they'd entrust with health matters should they win the White House.
Throughout the campaign...National News
Election day is drawing near and the candidates for president are distinguishing themselves with healthcare policy proposals.
Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign released several health-related potential policies over the past several weeks, including a plan to boost long-term care at home. According to Axios, up to a third of...National News
Conservative policymakers nationwide continue the attack on reproductive healthcare while the fallout from the Dobbs v. Whole Women's Health decision in states that chose to ban abortion comes to light.
After the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to unilaterally outlaw abortion, a number of stories of women...
