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Controversy Over Alzheimer’s Drug Deepens The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision last June to grant accelerated approval for Aduhelm , Biogen’s new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, sparked considerable controversy...

Moody’s Predictions for Healthcare in 2022: Moody’s Investors Service is expecting several trends in healthcare this year, according to a recent report from the credit rating agency. One of Moody’s predictions is that health insurers’...

States Retooling Certificate of Need Laws: Thirty-five states currently have certificate of need, or CON, laws, requiring certain healthcare facilities to obtain approval from the state before expanding their service capacity. But with critics of such...

Hospitals Allowing Staff Infected with COVID-19 to Keep Working: Health authorities in California announced last week that nurses and other hospital staff who test positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic can stay on the job. The state’s Department...

Nursing Home COVID Death Toll Prompting Funding Change in CA: With nearly 9,400 California nursing home residents having died of COVID-19 - roughly 13 percent of the total number of Californians claimed by the virus - the administration of Gov. Gavin...

Debate over Pay Parity for Physician ‘Virtual Check-in’ Phone Calls: A four-digit medical billing code added during the pandemic has allowed doctors to be reimbursed for 11- to 20-minute telephone calls with patients, $27 for those covered...

Biden Administration Rule Spurs Revolt in Congress over Surprise Billing: Last December Congress passed the No Surprises Act, aimed at protecting patients from being billed directly for out-of-network medical care not covered by their insurance. After...

OK High Court Reverses J&J Opioid Ruling: In a 5-1 ruling, the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s $465 million judgement against Johnson & Johnson, maintaining that the drugmaker violated the state's public nuisance...

TN Lawmakers Move to Block State Medical Boards from Disciplining Doctors for Spreading COVID-19 Misinformation: Ahead of a special session on coronavirus legislation last week, Tennessee lawmakers prefiled a pair of bills ( HB 9020 c and HB 9028 c...

Nursing Home In-Room Camera Bill Advancing in OH: A bipartisan bill ( SB 58 ) passed unanimously by the Ohio Senate in May and now up for its third committee hearing in the state’s House would allow nursing home residents or their families to...

Divergent Worker Vaccination Mandate Results in NY, RI: Healthcare workers in New York have been getting vaccinated against COVID-19 at over twice the rate of adult residents of the state as a whole, since former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced a vaccine...

NY Hospitals Push Unvaccinated Workers toward Vaccination with Suspensions: Hospitals in upstate New York have started placing employees on unpaid leave for failing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers...

Cost Cutting has Made Hospitals More Vulnerable to Pandemic: Hawaii has one of the lowest hospital bed per capita rates in the nation, at 1.9 beds for every 1,000 people. The state is now out of intensive care beds, with half of the 223 total statewide...

States Shifting Burden of Doctors’, Dentists’ Pandemic Expenses onto Insurers: A bill in committee in the California Senate ( SB 242 ) would require state-regulated private health insurance plans to reimburse doctors and dentists for “medically...

Coronavirus Tests Cash Cows for Some Providers: Some hospitals have been charging as much as $650 for a basic molecular COVID-19 test that costs them less than $50 to do, according to analysis of Medicare claims by Hospital Pricing Specialists. Some...

CO Seeking to Shut Down Stand-Alone ERs: A decade ago free-standing emergency rooms began cropping up around the country with the promise of providing emergency care in areas where there were no hospitals or where hospital ERs were overcrowded. But...

FDA Approval of Alzheimer’s Drug Sparks Controversy: Last week the FDA granted conditional approval of the first new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in almost twenty years. Although the decision may have come as welcome news to the millions...

WY Gov Allocates Federal Funds for Health Staffing : Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) announced he is allocating $30 million in federal funds to provide bolster heath care staffing across the state. The first $20 million will be utilized by facilities on...

Rollback of Out-of-State Medical Practice Restrictions Creating Roadblock for Telemedicine: During the darkest days of the pandemic, many states temporarily waived rules requiring licensed healthcare practitioners to hold a valid license where they...

COVID-19 to Drive Healthcare Costs Higher Long-Term: The health implications of COVID-19 are likely to inflate healthcare costs and insurance premiums for decades, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. The ongoing treatment of chronic conditions...

CA Vaccination-or-Test Requirement to Apply to Private-Sector Healthcare Workers: Under a new rule taking effect in California next month, an estimated 246,000 state employees and at least 2 million public- and private-sector health care workers and...

$26B Opioid Settlement Awaits Approval by States, Municipalities : A group of state AGs unveiled a $26 billion proposed settlement with major drug makers over their alleged role in the national opioid epidemic. Under the terms of the deal - the second...

ACA Survives Third Supreme Court Challenge: For the third time since being enacted in 2010, the Affordable Care Act has survived a major challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. By a wider margin than in the previous challenges in 2012 and 2015, with seven...

Big Question Remains with New Federal Surprise Billing Law: The federal No Surprises Act, passed late last year as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (HR 133), will allow providers to bill patients for out-of-network care under certain...