The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized a landmark rule that will require insurers to provide parity between their coverage for mental health and medical or surgical benefits. The rule also aims to expand access to mental and behavioral health services.
The rule fulfills a proposal from last summer and will...
In a letter on Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that he would end his campaign for reelection and then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee. VP Harris has spent her tenure in office advocating on behalf of the Biden administration for health care and reproductive justice and has indicated that these...
The Biden administration announced a new plan to address medical debt as it relates to credit scores. More than 100 million Americans are affected by medical debt.
The administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule that would keep medical debt from affecting credit scores. NPR reports that the...
This week, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports played a game of "good news, bad news" with the aging American public. The good news is that the date of Social Security and Medicare insolvency have been pushed back several years. The bad news is that they're both still anticipated to go broke in just over a...National News
President Joe Biden released his budget proposal this week which centers Medicare-boosting policies, lowering prescription drug prices and continuing subsidies to Affordable Care Act exchange insurers.
The president is pitching his $7.3 trillion budget for 2025 on the argument that it will curb national debt and reduce the deficit by...
For the third year in a row, a record number of people have signed up for health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) federal marketplace.
Federal officials estimate that more than 19 million people will enroll in 2024 coverage by the end of the enrollment period in January. According to the New York Times, already...
Arizona is one of several states expected to add a measure putting abortion access on the ballot in next year's election.
Governor Katie Hobbs threw her support behind the initiative this week by adding her signature to the petition for the measure to make it onto the ballot. The Arizona Abortion Access Act, brought by the Arizona for...National News
On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that First Lady Jill Biden would lead the White House Gender Policy Council as part of the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research.
Research into women's healthcare has lagged behind general care, which the White House says has led to significant research gaps that are contributing to...
On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a new rule that would impose tighter regulations on Medicare Advantage insurers. The rule covers some hotly debated issues including prior authorization, supplemental benefits and marketing.
President Joe Biden announced last year that his administration would...
On Monday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order (EO) to establish a set of standards for the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings.
The order asks the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a task force that will be given a year to develop guardrail policies for the use of AI and...
All 10 drug companies whose drugs were selected for drug price negotiation with the Medicare program have elected to participate in negotiations.
President Joe Biden made the announcement on Tuesday in an online video. The first 10 companies were announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in August and gave the...
Low-income Medicare beneficiaries are expected to see some much needed relief as a result of a new rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week. The rule seeks to simplify the enrollment and renewal processes for Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs), as many beneficiaries are currently encumbered from...
Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the proposed rule for nursing home federal staffing minimums and guidelines. The proposed rule was rebuffed by the nursing home industry and related stakeholders, as the nursing home workforce is already depleted due to the pandemic exacerbating an already...
COVID-19 cases are still on the rise across the country, including in Arizona.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention COVID Data Tracker, there was a 15% increase in hospitalizations and a 20% increase in COVID-related deaths over the past week.
The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19 Data...
Humana has filed suit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for a rule announced earlier this year that would allow the government to recoup overpayments from insurers based on extrapolated audits. Also, Novartis has challenged the Biden administration over the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation rule.
Studies have...CMS Rules
Last Friday, the White House and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their long-awaited proposal for a federal minimum staffing mandate in nursing homes.
The proposal would require Medicare and Medicaid nursing homes to provide a baseline minimum 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day...
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that would outright ban discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation for any HHS program, service or funded program. It would also offer protections against discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, color, national origin and...
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill to raise the national debt ceiling that will impact residual COVID-19 funding, but leaves Medicaid without work requirements.
House Republicans passed a debt ceiling bill that included Medicaid work requirements, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...National News
Negotiations between the White House, Congressional Republicans and Democrats remain at a stalemate as the deadline to raise the country's debt ceiling approaches. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is holding fast to his party's demand for Medicaid work requirements.
Under the Republican plan, according to NBC News, Medicaid recipients...National News
As House Republicans continue to use the threat of the debt ceiling to pass work requirements for the Medicaid program, providers and industry experts are voicing concerns for how such requirements could play out.
The bill stipulates that certain adults between the ages of 18 and 55 who have Medicaid coverage in Medicaid expansion...
