President Trump’s acting attorney general ordered the immediate reclassification of FDA-approved and state-licensed marijuana as a less dangerous drug Thursday. The move will make it easier to study medicinal applications of marijuana and could shore up support from influencers who support the research. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a Thursday post that on […]
Trump Admin Reclassifies State-Licensed Marijuana Read More »
The Medicare agency will extend a short-term program that will pay for weight-loss drugs such as Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, guaranteeing access to the popular medications will continue for seniors next year. The decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services comes after big Medicare insurers signaled that they didn’t initially
Medicare Delays Full Obesity-Drug Program Rollout After Insurers Push Back Read More »
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz is taking his fraudbusting effort to all 50 states. At POLITICO’s Health Care Summit, Oz unveiled a nationwide plan to crack down on alleged Medicaid fraud, announcing his agency will require all states this week to submit a plan within 30 days on how they will
Oz Unveils Nationwide Plan to Tackle Medicaid Fraud at POLITICO Summit Read More »
At a lengthy House Committee on Ways & Means hearing Tuesday, hospice and healthcare stakeholders testified about the harm caused by pervasive hospice and home health fraud in California and other states and laid out concrete ways to address the crisis. “Fraud exposes beneficiaries to exploitation and denies them access to appropriate care and undermines
House Hearing Highlights ‘Systemic Failure’ at Heart of Hospice, Home Health Fraud Read More »
The No Surprises Act (NSA) established a final-offer arbitration process called independent dispute resolution (IDR) to settle payment disputes between health insurers and health care providers for certain out-of-network services. This webpage provides data on how the IDR process is working, including estimates of the average prices emerging from IDR, qualifying payment amounts (QPAs) calculated
No Surprises Act Arbitration Databook Read More »
On April 14, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule as part of the Fiscal Year 2027 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rulemaking that would establish the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Expanded (CJR-X) Model, a mandatory alternative payment model for lower extremity joint replacement (LEJR) procedures that would
CMS Proposes Nationwide Mandatory Bundled Payment Model for Joint Replacements Read More »
President Trump moved on Saturday to “reverse the crisis of serious mental illness in America” by boosting access to psychedelic drugs in clinical settings. In an executive order, he directed the federal government to rush access to treatments and reevaluate their status as controlled substances. The order directs the Food and Drug Administration to expedite
How Trump Is Pushing Psychedelics Reform Through the Health Agencies Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget justification includes more than 20 legislative proposals spanning drug and biologic approval pathways, supply chain oversight, advertising standards and enforcement authorities. The full package addresses topics ranging from food safety to tobacco regulation, but the subset of proposals most relevant to life science investors include
A federal judge on April 15 denied a Canadian faith-based group’s request to force UnitedHealth Group to include a shareholder proposal in its upcoming proxy materials. The group, Mission Fund, had asked UnitedHealth’s board to publish a report describing the healthcare consequences of its acquisitions over the past 10 years. UnitedHealth declined to include the
Court Denies Shareholder’s Bid to Force UnitedHealth to Report on Acquisition Impact Read More »
A federal anti-fraud task force has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies due to suspected malfeasance totaling an estimated $600 million in the Los Angeles area. The suspensions were facilitated by a federal anti-fraud task force led by Vice President J.D. Vance. The White House established the task force in March, which in
Anti-Fraud Task Force Suspends 447 Hospices Read More »
