Court Allows Purdue Pharma to Shield Sacklers in Opioid Bankruptcy The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that members of the Sackler family who own bankrupt Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma could be shielded from current and future civil...
State Lawmakers Seeking to Broaden Access to Mental Healthcare With over 1 in 5 U.S. adults and youths (13-18 years old) experiencing mental illness and cost keeping many of them from being able to access mental healthcare, state lawmakers are trying various...
FL Enacts Prescription Drug Reform Law Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation ( SB 1550 ) aimed at curbing prescription drug prices. The measure codifies the governor’s actions last year restricting certain pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices...
No SCOTUS Ruling on Abortion Pill—Yet Access to the abortion pill mifepristone remained in place after the Supreme Court delayed issuing a decision on whether to restrict access to the drug after a federal judge in Texas ordered a hold on FDA approval of...
WA Stockpiling Abortion Drug as ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Potential Court Ruling Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said he ordered the state’s Department of Corrections to purchase 30,000 doses of the abortion pill mifepristone last month, and...
MS Gov Nixes Health Insurance Reform Bills Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) vetoed two health insurance reform measures that were passed by the Legislature with bipartisan support. One of the bills ( SB 2622 ) would have accelerated the prior authorization...
Walgreens Caught in Red-State, Blue-State Battle over Abortion Pills California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said last week that his state was cutting ties with Walgreens, including a $54 million contract to provide medications to inmates of the state’s correctional...
Amazon Closes $3.9B One Medical Deal Amazon announced last week that it had closed its $3.9 billion deal to buy One Medical, furthering its efforts to expand its growing medical services business. The tech giant’s announcement came the day after The Wall...
CA to Consider $25 Minimum Wage for Healthcare Workers A bill introduced last week in California ( SB 525 ) would establish a statewide $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers and support staff. The bill would require healthcare facilities and home health agencies...
Flurry of Bills Targeting Vaccine Makers and Mandates: Already this year lawmakers in 18 states have introduced over 80 measures dealing with vaccine policy, according to Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. Most of...
U.S. Hospital Use of Volunteers May Violate Federal Rules: Volunteer workers have become an integral part of the labor force at hospitals across the country. According to analysis of federal and other data by Kaiser Health News, hospitals may use over $5 billion...
Hospitals Getting Creative to Mitigate Staffing Shortages With contract labor expenses up almost 500 percent from where they were before the pandemic, a growing number of hospital systems are creating in-house staffing systems to help them deal with the nationwide...
Judge Blocks KS Law Banning Telemedicine Abortions A judge in Topeka, Kansas issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a 2011 Kansas law banning telemedicine abortions on a women’s clinic in Wichita, pending a ruling in the associated case...
Medical Bill Financing Adding to Patient Debt Hospitals and other healthcare providers have traditionally offered patients interest-free payment plans to help them manage their medical bills. But providers have increasingly been relying on payment plans provided...
CO Seeks to Reduce Healthcare Costs through Consumer Incentives Colorado has launched an initiative enabling employers in the state to band together to negotiate lower prices for health care. The program also allows employees that choose lower-cost and higher...