Policy & Regulations

This channel includes news coverage of healthcare policy and regulations set by Congress, the states, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and medical associations and societies. 

Republicans question legality of potential settlements for insurers

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to explain how the agency plans to settle lawsuits from health insurers over the multi-billion dollar shortfall in the Affordable Care Act’s risk corridor program.

How medical school students are choosing their own oaths

While today’s physicians normally don’t swear to Apollo like in the original Hippocratic oath, even more modern versions are falling out of fashion, with some medical schools letting students craft their own vow to “do no harm.”

Exchange premiums still lower than employer-sponsored plans without subsidies

Rising premiums for coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges have been labeled as a sign of the “death spiral” of the post-ACA market, but a report from the Urban Institute said those plans still offer lower premiums than employer-sponsored insurance.

OIG levies largest fine ever for corporate integrity agreement violation

Kindred Health Care, the largest provider of post-acute care services in the U.S., has paid a $3 million penalty for failing to comply with a corporate integrity agreement (CIA) with HHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

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FDA will award you $40,000 to develop crowd-sourcing Naloxone app

The FDA is offering a skilled coder $40,000 to make a mobile app that could help people experiencing an opioid overdose find a potentially life-saving dose of Naloxone. 

8 states that have opioid abuse rates above 5.5 percent

As people across the U.S. continue to struggle with opioid addiction and communities face fatal overdoses, the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity released a two-part report detailing the many facets of the crisis.

ACOs Using Lightbeam Health Solutions Net $84 Million in Savings for CMS Medicare Shared Savings Program, Doubling Average Savings of Other ACOs

IRVING, Texas – Sept. 19, 2016 – Lightbeam Health Solutions, Inc., a leader in end-to-end population health management solutions, announced today that Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) using Lightbeam technology delivered $83.8 million in savings to the 2015 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), fully 20 percent of all MSSP savings in 2015, according to the ACO Financial Report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Yale New Haven Hospital will perform HIV-positive organ transplants

Another U.S. hospital (and the first in the New England region), will be allowed to perform organ transplants on HIV-positive patients, according to the Yale Daily News. 

Around the web

If passed, this bill would help clinician-led clinical registries explore Medicare data for research purposes. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and American College of Cardiology both shared public support for the bipartisan legislation. 

Cardiologists and other physicians may soon need to provide much more information when ordering remote patient monitoring for Medicare patients.

Why are so many cardiovascular devices involved in Class I recalls? One possible reason could be the large number of devices hitting the market without undergoing much premarket clinical testing. 

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