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.

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).

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. 

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.

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).

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. 

CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt faced tough questioning from Republican lawmakers about whether increased premiums for 2017 and the failure of ACA co-ops are signs the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges are failing.

A Sept. 14 statement from drug-maker Pfizer said the company believes the FDA should follow an advisory committee’s recommendation to remove a serious Black Box warning from its anti-smoking drug Chantix, which was released in 2006. But a report released by the FDA the same day outlines concerns about the advisory committee’s data accuracy when it comes to the psychological effects of the medicine.