Author's posts
Music therapy program for preemies to offer home therapy
With funding from a dance marathon, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is expanding its music therapy program for premature infants into the home.
How the CMS picks winners of valuable quality measure contracts
Healthcare quality analysts say favoritism toward incumbents and fear of disrupting the status quo are major reasons why the same groups are repeatedly selected to develop and maintain quality measures for the CMS.
Civica Rx aims to stabilize fragile pharmaceutical supply chain
Seemingly intractable drug shortages have spawned Civica Rx, which maps out a phased approach to bringing more generic drugs to market.
Opioid deaths linked to drug marketing to physicians, study
New research shows a link between increased opioid marketing to physicians and higher opioid prescribing rates and elevated overdose deaths in the U.S. It’s one of the first studies to make that link.
KPC Group offers $610M for four Verity Health hospitals
California-based Verity wants to implement a public auction where other buyers could outbid KPC for Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, Seton Medical Center in Daly City and Seton Coastside in Moss Beach.
CMS approves Arizona’s tough Medicaid work requirement
Arizona will suspend coverage for non-disabled Medicaid expansion enrollees who fail to report work activities for a single month.
MedPAC members consider arbitration to control drug prices
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission members say the panel needs to explore how to lower hospitals’ drug prices covered under Medicare Part A, with some members floating binding arbitration as a possibility.
CVS and Walmart resolve short-lived reimbursement dispute
CVS Health and Walmart said they have resolved a contract dispute and inked a new multiyear contract that allows certain CVS pharmacy benefit management customers to continue filling prescriptions at Walmart drugstores.
Senate health committee leaders introduce key funding bill
Senate health committee GOP Chair Lamar Alexander and top Democrat Patty Murray introduced five-year funding for community health centers and other key healthcare funding under the panel’s jurisdiction.
NYC Health & Hospitals proposes changes to charity-care payments
Previous cuts to the DSH program brought NYC Health & Hospitals to the brink of being unable to pay its workforce on time in fall 2017. Now, it wants to change the state formula altogether.
