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Medicare Advantage growth fueled by people switching from original Medicare
Medicare Advantage has steadily grown in popularity and now covers slightly more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries, and one of the drivers of this growth has been people switching from traditional Medicare, especially younger and healthier patien…
New FDA program incentivizes drugmakers to invest in quality measures
Quality issues are still the number one reason for drug shortages, and in an effort to address this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is debuting a quality management maturity (QMM) program intended to incentivize drugmakers to invest in quality m…
California health system pays $5 million for alleged Medicaid false claims
Lompoc Valley Medical Center (LVMC), a California healthcare system that operates multiple providers including a hospital and several clinics, has agreed to pay $5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the California …
Humana to provide in-home primary care through CenterWell business
CenterWell Senior Primary Care, a Humana-owned primary care business focused on seniors, said this week it will start offering in-home primary care services to seniors who seek care at certain facilities in Louisiana and Georgia.
The new program, Prima…
HHS proposes minimum staffing standards for nursing homes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has issued a proposed rule that seeks to establish comprehensive staffing requirements for nursing homes – including, for the first time, national…
CMS prods states to examine auto-renewal as possible cause of Medicaid disenrollments
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has sent a letter to Medicaid directors in all 50 states directing them to determine whether they have an eligibility systems issue that could cause people, especially children, to be disenrolled from Medi…
Emergency medicine physicians top list of most burned-out specialties
As the demands of the medical field continue to intensify, physicians practicing in some specialties find themselves grappling with the harrowing consequences of excessive stress, long hours and emotional exhaustion – and this burnout is having an effe…
Almost 80% of healthcare organizations experienced cyber incidents in the past year
More than three quarters (78%) of respondents to a new Claroty survey experienced a minimum of one cybersecurity incident over the last year, which impacted a broad range of asset types, including IT systems, sensitive data, medical devices and buil…
AHA presses CMS to do more on cost sharing, junk plans
The American Hospital Association has lauded efforts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to limit short-term “junk” health plans, but is pressing the agency to do more on the issue of unaffordable cost sharing, “even in ACA compliant heal…
Highmark Health logs $13.6B in revenue in the first half
Citing strong performance from its business units, Highmark Health said it logged $13.6 billion in revenue during the first half of 2023, as well as an operating gain of $230 million and net income of $389 million.
The nonprofit Blues insurer attribute…
