In its final report on the 2018 open enrollment period on the Affordable Care Act (AC) exchanges, CMS said 11.8 million people selected or were re-enrolled in a plan. While the final tally combining enrollment from the federal and state exchanges represents a 3 percent decline from the prior year, supporters of the ACA painted it as a positive, considering cuts in outreach and advertising and the push to repeal the law by the Trump administration.

For people who qualify for subsidies to buy health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the law led not only to expansions in the insured population but better access to care and more diagnoses of conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol.

CMS has finalized its rule for 2019 rates for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D, giving insurers a bigger-than-expected rate increase while finalizing proposals on expanded supplemental benefits and efforts aimed at fighting opioid addiction.

In a lawsuit aimed at allowing a physician practice to break away from the region’s dominant health system, physicians at the Mecklenburg Medical Group (MMG) have accused Charlotte’s Atrium Health of monopolistic practices that have been harmful to patients and go against its nonprofit mission. Atrium responded by saying the 92 doctors who want to leave will be allowed to do so.

GE Healthcare has announced it will sell its revenue cycle, ambulatory care and workforce management software units to private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion, following earlier plans for General Electric to sell assets and rumors the entire company could be broken up.

A bundled payment arrangement created in Texas by a non-profit Medicaid health maintenance organization (HMO) didn’t result in consistent savings for the two large physician groups participating, according to research displayed at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Congress in Chicago.

In his first all-staff meeting as director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, MD, predicted the U.S. could end the AIDS epidemic with tools already available. He also committed the agency’s policies to be rooted in scientific evidence.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed legislation into law to allow health plans that don’t comply with Affordable Care Act regulations with a new kind of strategy: Defining some insurance plans as something other than health insurance.

Pressure from lower-priced healthcare options has already been hitting hospitals’ bottom lines. If Walmart’s early talks to acquire Humana come to fruition, that pressure would only intensify, according to the Wall Street Journal.