Cigna to sell Medicare Advantage plans to Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer for $3.3 billion
Cigna is officially exiting the Medicare business, agreeing to sell all of its Medicare insurance…
Category: CMS
STAT+: Biden changes will force health insurers to speed up and get more specific if they want to deny care
The Biden administration moved Wednesday to force insurance companies to give specific reasons for denying…
STAT+: Copay coupons for some drugs must count toward deductibles, after Biden court move
WASHINGTON — Insurers will have to count drug copay coupons toward deductibles and patient spending…
Opinion: The decline and fall of elite multispecialty medical groups
The failure of Geisinger Health System, which lost $842 million in 2022 and disappeared into…
Health care negotiations on Capitol Hill are clear as mud
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s twice-weekly newsletter about the politics and…
Anthony Fauci talked Covid in Congress in a nine-hour, closed-door grilling — and that was just day one
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s twice-weekly newsletter about the politics and…
STAT+: HHS’s Xavier Becerra, once an ‘invisible’ secretary, is racing to cement a clearer legacy
WASHINGTON — He’s been called the “invisible” secretary. So far removed from the White House…
Opinion: Cost isn’t the only reason Medicare doesn’t cover Wegovy
Few medications have captured the national attention like Wegovy — and for good reason. In…
Opinion: Why haven’t health care cost increases exceeded inflation? There’s a very good reason
All Americans are worried about inflation. The prices for housing, clothes and food at the…
Opinion: It’s time to rethink the Medicare annual wellness visit
In 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created the annual wellness visit (AWV),…
Opinion: I worked for CMS. Even I struggle to help family navigate dual eligibility
Three months ago, my aunt Margaret had a stroke. Days before, she was repainting her…
STAT+: Medicare’s new pay boost for primary care is angering specialists
WASHINGTON — Doctors are staring down a cut to their Medicare pay next year, and…
Ambulance rides for just $100? Government advisers want major billing fixes
A panel of government advisers finally has endorsed ideas for Congress to solve the particularly…
Sen. Bernie Sanders moves toward another hearing with pharma CEOs
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis. Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your…
STAT+: Government looks to tinker with new caps on Medicare Advantage broker payments
The federal government is proposing to rein in health insurance companies that entice brokers with…
STAT+: Democrats push government to police algorithms in Medicare Advantage
House Democrats are raising concerns with the Biden administration that Medicare Advantage plans need better…
Opinion: Let’s leverage graduate medical education to increase Medicaid re-enrollment
Lately, we’ve seen two distinct lines at our hospitals. We would all be healthier if…
STAT+: Nostrum Laboratories and its CEO — who once defended Shkreli price hikes — to pay up to $50 million over Medicaid rebates
A pharmaceutical company and its chief executive — who once defended Martin Shkreli for raising…
STAT+: Looking to retain billions, hospitals warn Medicare’s drug payment fix is ‘unlawful’
Hospitals are telling government officials it would be illegal to claw back $7.8 billion as…
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STAT+: When Medicare paid doctors differently, fewer patients had heart problems
WASHINGTON — Doctors lowered the incidence of heart disease and strokes among their patients when…
STAT+: Key takeaways from AdvaMed, the world’s largest medical device conference
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Thousands of workers in the medical device industry gathered here this week…
The stability of $0 premiums in Medicare Advantage
You’re reading the web edition of Health Care Inc., STAT’s weekly newsletter following the flow…
STAT+: Obama-era Medicare innovation initiative doesn’t save money after all
WASHINGTON — A key Obama-era initiative was supposed to save Medicare money by testing new…
Did you have Obamacare on your GOP debate bingo card?
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis. Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your…
STAT+: Senate committee chair tries to spark negotiations to keep Medicare solvent
WASHINGTON — The Senate Budget Committee started what could become a bipartisan effort to extend…
STAT+: Medicare Advantage plans for dual-eligible enrollees set to get Senate scrutiny
The Senate has set its eyes on regulating insurance plans for some of the most…
STAT+: Bernie Sanders, Bill Cassidy clash over proposal to increase primary care doctors, nurses
WASHINGTON — In a striking display of discord Thursday, leaders of the Senate’s health committee…
Opinion: How the drug price negotiation program could affect Medicare Part D beneficiaries
After the recent announcement of the first 10 drugs selected for Medicare price negotiation, much…
Opinion: What does ‘bona fide competition’ actually mean in the biologics market?
On Aug. 29, Medicare released its highly anticipated list of 10 therapies for which it…
STAT+: Humana sues Biden administration over Medicare Advantage audit rule
Humana sued the federal government Friday, arguing that this year’s new rule to claw back…
Here are the 10 drugs that will be up first for Medicare price negotiation
WASHINGTON — Medicare on Tuesday announced the first 10 drugs selected for a new drug…
STAT+: Feds fine Medicare Advantage plans for overcharging their members
The federal government has started penalizing Medicare Advantage insurers that have one common, glaring problem:…
Opinion: Medicare beneficiaries deserve access to genetic counselors
Precision medicine driven by genetic health care is knocking on the door. It offers hope…
STAT+: Medicare slashes safety net hospital payments on estimate that more people have insurance
The federal government will pay hospitals that treat poor and uninsured patients almost $1 billion…
Opinion: Many immigrants are ineligible for important U.S. maternal health initiatives
In the U.S., about 16% of Black birthing people are immigrants. But even as the federal…
Opinion: Enough with the health care policy patchwork. It’s time for universal insurance
Everyone knows that the United States is the only high-income country without universal health insurance….
Opinion: I introduced the ADA 35 years ago. Now Congress needs to act to ban a practice that devalues disabled lives
Thirty-five years ago, I was proud to introduce the Americans with Disabilities Act in the…
STAT+: Hospitals struggle to make money on CAR-T cancer therapies, but their fortunes may change
WASHINGTON — Hospitals for years have complained that Medicare pays so little for CAR-T cancer…
STAT+: Key House panel plots a new health care package — complicating the chamber’s agenda
WASHINGTON — It’s two weeks until Congress leaves town in August, and a prominent House panel…
STAT+: Medicare details the structure of its new drug price negotiation program
WASHINGTON — Medicare on Friday released new details about how its new drug price negotiation…
Opinion: CMS must protect access to the ‘gold standard of breast reconstruction’
In 1983, I flew home from college to be with my mother as she woke…
STAT+: Protestors slam health insurance lobby for Medicare Advantage coverage restrictions
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of activists rallied today outside of the headquarters of the country’s largest…
Opinion: CMS change could slow the crucial growth of ‘food as medicine’
Sometimes, an apple a day really is just what the doctor ordered. And for the…
Opinion: The staggering financial burden of giving birth — even with insurance
The burden of high health care costs and medical debt in the U.S. is no…
STAT+: Congress explores changes to the way Medicare pays doctors
Congress is taking early steps towards changing the way Medicare pays physicians. At a hearing…
STAT+: The strategy behind the pharmaceutical industry’s flurry of lawsuits challenging drug pricing reform
WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry has been filing a lawsuit here, there, and pretty much everywhere….
STAT+: How drug pricing reforms are affecting Bayer’s investments
WASHINGTON — Pharma companies have long been warning Democrats’ drug pricing reforms could discourage investment in…
Opinion: The FDA needs a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy for Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab
Over the past several months, my conversations with colleagues in the Alzheimer’s field have featured…
Opinion: Medicaid adult dental benefits are shamefully — and dangerously — inadequate in most states
In the middle of the night, you’re jolted awake by a throbbing pain in your…
STAT+: Transplant patients say new Medicare guidance puts their donated organs at risk
Margaret Gamble was supposed to receive a blood test in the mail in May. It’s…