Mercyhealth reaches $1 million settlement with feds over COVID-19 vaccine policy
Rockford-based Mercyhealth has agreed to pay more than $1 million to employees who had refused to comply with its COVID-19 vaccine policy.
UnitedHealth, Amedisys settle with Illinois, DOJ over $3.3 billion merger
UnitedHealth and Amedisys have agreed to a settlement with Illinois, three states and the Department of Justice, clearing the path for their $3.3 billion merger to go through.
House Committee Wrestles With Lab Test Regulation
Members of a House committee mostly agreed that laboratory-developed tests need more oversight, but were divided Thursday on how best to approach the topic. The issue at hand was a proposed rule from the FDA that would require medical facilities that use lab tests developed in-house to get the tests approved by the FDA, something […]
Opinion | Never Ask Me to Be a Medical Expert Witness (Again)
Lazarus is an adjunct professor of psychiatry. Once, I agreed to be an expert witness. Never again! Not because I was grilled on the witness stand for several hours. Not because my qualifications were questioned. And certainly not because I was compensated poorly for my time. Rather, I don’t ever want to have to defend […]
ACIP Endorses 20-Valent Pneumococcal Vaccine for Kids
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) agreed unanimously on Thursday to include the 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20; Prevnar) as an option for U.S. children. All 14 members voted in favor of the following four proposals: Routine use in children ages 2-23 months: ACIP recommended either the 15-valent PCV (PCV15; Vaxneuvance) or PCV20, […]
Experts Call for PBM Transparency During Senate Hearing
Most expert witnesses at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday agreed that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — middlemen between the drug companies and insurers — drive up the prices of prescription drugs, leaving patients with higher out-of-pocket costs, and offered a range of suggestions on how to curb PBM abuses. Historically, PBMs […]
Federal Judge’s Ruling Threatens Preventive Care Coverage in ACA
A federal judge in Texas agreed on Wednesday with plaintiffs — a handful of employers in the state — that requiring insurers to cover the costs of medications for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) infringed on their religious rights, effectively scrapping a central tenet of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the ACA, most health plans […]
COP26 deal sparks hope for positive tipping points
The Breakthrough Agenda agreed at COP26 could help trigger positive tipping points to tackle the climate crisis, researchers say. At the summit in Glasgow, leaders of countries covering 70% of world GDP pledged to “make clean technologies and sustainable solutions the most affordable, accessible and attractive option in each emitting sector globally before 2030.” This […]
More Work Needed to Clean Up Polluted Drinking Water, Experts Tell House Members
WASHINGTON — Not enough is being done to get chemical contaminants out of U.S. waterways, witnesses and lawmakers agreed during a hearing on challenges to water quality held by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. “The last administration needlessly weakened Clean Water Act provisions over rivers, streams, and […]
Does COAPT Change the Need to Try Foundational HF Drugs in Functional MR?
Clinicians agreed on the need for an overhaul of the heart failure guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) titration process during a debate on a different question: whether patients with functional mitral regurgitation (MR) should exhaust all options before they try transcatheter repair. JoAnn Lindenfeld, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, asserted that taking appropriate […]