A rumored White House Office of Management and Budget plan would move more of the federal government’s safety net programs, like food stamps, into HHS.

The latest report from Medicare trustees accelerated the timeline for the program’s hospital insurance fund being depleted to 2026—three years earlier than their previous report projected.

Proponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) argued—and continue to argue—that it will reduce frequent use of the emergency department (ED) by the same people with expanded coverage, especially for those most likely to make repeated visits to the ED.

Fifty-nine percent of Maine voters approved a ballot referendum last year to expand Medicaid eligibility in the state. After Republican Gov. Paul LePage repeatedly refused to implement it, a judge ruled Monday LePage's administration has to obey voters’ wishes and submit its expansion plan to CMS.

Kaiser Health News reports on one facility—a 26-bed hospital in Surprise Valley, California—that is $4 million in debt—and in desperate need of outside help. The community may have found reason for hope, in the form of a 34-year-old former bodybuilder named Beau Gertz. He’s proposing a plan to use telemedicine to help boost revenue.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, delivered the opening remarks at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2018 annual meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago, emphasizing his organization’s goal of reducing the time needed to connect cancer patients with treatment.

Johnson said if FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb intends to limit the reach of the law through new FDA rules, that would go against his intent in writing the legislation.

Community Health Systems’ selling spree continues, this time in its home state in Tennessee, as the for-profit hospital giant finalized the sale of three hospitals to West Tennessee Healthcare, a public, not-for-profit system.