For several months, it was impossible to purchase romaine lettuce or any products containing romaine due to a multi-state E. coli outbreak linked to the product. Recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the outbreak appears to be over. Outbreak Details According to the CDC, 62 people were infected with the… Continue Reading ›
After drawn-out legal proceedings with the Justice Department, CVS Health and Aetna have finally agreed to a gigantic $69 billion merger deal. provided that the companies divest part of the business prior to officially merging. This merger is the most recent in a spate of huge health insurance and health provider buyouts and mergers, which… Continue Reading ›
More than 100,000 visits to California hospitals were by homeless people in 2017, up 28 percent from the two years prior. According to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, over a third involved a diagnosis of mental health, although only 6 percent of hospital discharges included a mental health diagnosis. The homeless population… Continue Reading ›
FDA Proposes Mammography Rule Regarding Dense Breasts Studies have shown that women with dense breasts have an increased risk of cancer, which could lead to missed cancer diagnoses on mammograms. In an effort to address the issue, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing a rule that would require mammography centers to inform… Continue Reading ›
One in five Americans will go without the health care he needs because he can’t afford it. To decrease the out-of-pocket cost for patients, the federal government wants to make drug companies include in television ads the price of drugs and biological chemicals covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Pharmaceuticals companies, who say the law interferes… Continue Reading ›
Federal Judge Strikes Down Work Requirements for Medicaid Recipients U.S. District Judge James Boasberg blocked the state of Kentucky from requiring Medicaid recipients to work to retain benefits. Boasberg also discontinued the same requirements in Arkansas in his ruling. This is the second time in nine months that Boasberg has ruled against the work requirement. … Continue Reading ›
Quite a few of the healthcare policy decisions made by the Trump administration have been mired in partisanship and acrimony, but this is certainly not the case with a proposed rule recently published on the Federal Register. The rule in question involves the expansion of health reimbursement agreements, known as HRAs, that would benefit Americans… Continue Reading ›
UnitedHealthCare has announced that it plans to leave Iowa’s Medicaid program over the next few months, leaving as many as 425,000 residents without a healthcare insurer. In Dubuque, healthcare providers are concerned about the impact not only on their clients but also on their business. On Friday, March 29, UnitedHealthCare announced that it was pulling… Continue Reading ›
U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates struck down a small business health insurance plan supported by the Trump administration. The judge indicated that association health plans were designed as an “end-run” around the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This was the second decision in a week striking two efforts by Republicans to change major components… Continue Reading ›
Since 2016, Tennessee Has Dropped Insurance for Over 100,000 Children Tennessee parents are discovering that their children may have been dropped from two state government insurance programs in the Volunteer State: TennCare and CoverKids. It’s estimated that at least 128,000 children were removed from the programs over the past three years and many of them… Continue Reading ›