STAT+: Insurers went all-in on Medicare Advantage. Now, some are scaling back
For years, health insurers battled to gain market share in the lucrative privatized Medicare program….
Category: CMS
Opinion: Medicare’s new transitional coverage of emerging technologies program doesn’t go far enough
Included in the original law that established Medicare in 1965 was a short but consequential…
Opinion: STAT+: What the newly released Medicare prices for 10 drugs do and don’t tell us
For many of us, Thursday was Health-Policy-Wonk Festivus. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services…
STAT+: Why U.S. health care cybersecurity laws are better at protecting a corpse’s privacy than patients’ lives
Two days into a cyberattack on his hospital system, Nate Couture reached the end of…
STAT+: Medicare finalizes reimbursement rule for breakthrough medical devices
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has finalized its rule easing reimbursement for medical…
STAT+: Medicare scrambles to keep prescription drug plan premiums stable ahead of elections
WASHINGTON — Medicare officials are offering private insurers big subsidies to keep premiums for prescription-drug…
STAT+: 7 key people who could shape Trump’s health care policy
WASHINGTON — A second Trump administration would bring a new wave of health policy officials…
STAT+: How to tell if Biden drove a hard bargain on drug prices
WASHINGTON — The deadline for announcing how much Medicare lowered drug prices in the first…
STAT+: Disruptions loom for telehealth providers and patients as Congress inches closer to deadline
Around November, Kivo Health, a telehealth provider of pulmonary rehabilitation services, will need to start…
Six questions about Medicare’s proposed plan to cover digital therapeutics
You’re reading the web edition of STAT’s Health Tech newsletter, our guide to how technology…
Opinion: Fixing the reimbursement and coverage divide between ‘breakthrough’ drugs and medical devices
The Food and Drug Administration designates as “breakthrough” technologies certain drugs and devices. This designation…
STAT+: Medicare pay proposals are good news for health tech, bad news for docs
You’re reading the web version of Health Care Inc., STAT’s weekly newsletter following the flow…
STAT+: The effort to reform physician pay is set to pit primary care docs against highly paid specialists
WASHINGTON — There’s been a long lull in fighting between primary care and specialty doctors…
STAT+: New Medicare Advantage star ratings give extra bonuses to multiple insurers
More than two dozen Medicare Advantage insurers received higher quality marks for 2024, based on…
STAT+: Medicare’s big experiment to fix kidney failure care hasn’t worked so far, studies say
A few years ago, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched a big experiment….
Stop blindly allowing MA plans to use AI to deny care, lawmakers urge Biden administration
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the Biden administration to prohibit Medicare Advantage insurers…
STAT+: Biden administration to recalculate Medicare Advantage quality ratings and bonuses
The federal government is rescoring the quality ratings of this year’s Medicare Advantage plans, which…
Biden and Trump are fighting to claim credit for $35 insulin. It was actually a pharma giant’s idea
WASHINGTON — Both President Biden and former President Trump love to claim credit for getting…
STAT+: Medicare Advantage plan’s quality ratings were incorrectly calculated by government, judge rules
The federal government inappropriately lowered the 2024 Medicare Advantage star ratings of SCAN Health Plan,…
Drug treatment that insists on abstinence? Federal agencies are just saying no
For as long as the federal government has worked to support substance use treatment, it…
STAT+: Nursing homes sue over Biden administration’s minimum staffing rule
A new federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s new minimum nursing home staffing rule lays…
New Medicaid rule expected to lower wait times for home-based care, raise caregiver wages
Caregivers for older adults and people with disabilities could see a bump in their wages…
STAT+: Biden administration urged to license prostate cancer drug patents in a bid to lower its cost
In the latest gambit to lower the cost of a pricey medicine, three advocacy groups…
HCA’s charity care filings are on hyperdrive
You’re reading the web version of Health Care Inc., STAT’s weekly newsletter following the flow of money…
New HHS guidance requires consent for pelvic, breast, and other sensitive examinations
Hospitals performing pelvic and other sensitive exams for training purposes without patients’ explicit consent, including…
STAT+: Medicare Advantage insurers pressure Biden administration for bigger payments
The public will soon find out whether the federal government is willing to meet the…
STAT+: Medicare announces loan program to aid providers affected by Change cyberattack
Medicare announced on Saturday that it will make advance payments available to physician groups, hospitals,…
STAT+: Medicare is a tricky market for telehealth companies. Why is Talkspace betting on it?
Over the last few years, virtual mental health company Talkspace has been on a relentless…
Opinion: New federal guidance is hurting cancer patients, especially those in rural areas
I recently started a patient with metastatic triple-positive breast cancer patient on a targeted therapy…
STAT+: Medical device lobby says it’s tired of waiting on Medicare to cover breakthrough devices
Medical technology lobby AdvaMed is fed up with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services….
Why won’t Medicare deliver food to sick seniors, if it could get them healthy?
WASHINGTON – Some twelve percent of traditional Medicare beneficiaries have heart failure. Roughly a quarter…
Opinion: Medicare Advantage is bad for patients and bad for investors
In 2023, enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the version of Medicare run by private insurers, surpassed…
Colorado could cap payments for Amgen’s Enbrel
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s twice-weekly newsletter about the politics and…
Medicare Advantage’s 33 million club
You’re reading the web version of Health Care Inc., STAT’s weekly newsletter following the flow of money…
STAT+: Obamacare plans don’t have to cover weight loss drugs. The government is considering changing that
WASHINGTON — Drugmakers are doing everything to tap the bottomless well of demand for new…
Opinion: New CMS rules will throttle access researchers need to Medicare, Medicaid data
Groundbreaking research more than a decade ago showed that almost one-fifth of people enrolled in…
STAT+: Medicare Advantage enrollment races past 33 million
Roughly 33.4 million adults older than 65 and people with disabilities were enrolled in a…
STAT+: Lawmakers eye partial increase for Medicare doctor pay
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are considering increasing doctors’ Medicare pay in an upcoming government funding package,…
STAT+: Private equity investment in Medicare Advantage drops
Major insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare and Humana have edged out private equity firms from investing…
No one’s pleased with the government’s pitch for 2025 Medicare Advantage rates
You’re reading the web version of Health Care Inc., STAT’s weekly newsletter following the flow of money…
STAT+: Senate Democrats push for stronger rules around AI in Medicare Advantage
Senate Democrats on Thursday said Medicare should take more urgent and aggressive action to prevent…
STAT+: Government warns Medicare Advantage insurers not to deny care based on AI
In recent months, the federal government has repeatedly told Medicare Advantage insurers that they cannot…
STAT+: Medicare threatens to pull funding from HCA’s embattled Mission Hospital
Five years after investor-owned HCA Healthcare took over an esteemed nonprofit hospital in North Carolina,…
CDC and social media: The new misinformation war
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s twice-weekly newsletter about the politics and…
STAT+: Cano Health’s downfall offers a warning for Medicare Advantage
Private Medicare just isn’t the gold mine it once was. Case in point: Cano Health,…
STAT+: The lone Democrat willing to weaken Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices
WASHINGTON — Two Republican lawmakers who introduced legislation to water down the Inflation Reduction Act’s…
Let the Medicare Advantage lobbying begin
You’re reading the web version of Health Care Inc., STAT’s weekly newsletter following the flow of money…
STAT+: New Medicare Advantage rule is boon for providers, drag on insurers
Starting this year, private Medicare plans have to cover their members’ hospitalizations at the higher…
Opinion: Medicare has different standards than the FDA. That’s how it should be
Who among us is looking forward to getting older in 2024? Not senators (most of…
STAT+: Medicare Advantage insurers face slight proposed cut to 2025 payments
The federal government is cutting the average benchmark payments for 2025 Medicare Advantage plans by…