New Monkeypox Cases Plummet, but Racial Gap Remains, White House Says
WASHINGTON — Cases of monkeypox are continuing to decline in the U.S., but the disease is still disproportionately affecting people of color, a White House official said. “In the U.S., about 27,635 cases were reported as of yesterday,” Demetre Daskalakis, MD, White House National Monkeypox Response deputy coordinator, said at an online briefing Thursday. “We […]
Doc Groups Ask Congress to Extend Payment Bonus for Alternative Payment Models
WASHINGTON — Congress must extend Medicare’s payment bonus to doctors participating in alternative payment models (APMs) to incentivize them to continue, doctors and health policy experts said Thursday at a Capitol Hill briefing. “It’s not like you can go from fee-for-service today and then jump into an APM tomorrow,” said Kisha Davis, MD, MPH, vice […]
Clinicians Need More Training in Nutrition Education and Spotting Hunger, Biden Says
WASHINGTON — Doctors and other clinicians need more training on how to recognize hunger symptoms and to teach patients about proper nutrition, President Biden said Wednesday. Guidance to Stay Healthy “In 19 states, more than 35% of adults are obese,” Biden said at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, which was held […]
Want Us to Find the Fountain of Youth? Give Us Endpoints, Scientists Say
WASHINGTON — Better surrogate endpoints are needed to help patients benefit from anti-aging therapies, experts told a House committee Thursday. “It would be important to develop different metrics of measuring success,” said Steve Horvath, PhD, principal investigator at Altos Labs, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company focused on cellular rejuvenation programming. “Imagine that you have a […]
House Bill Would Fix Glitch in Medicare Non-Emergency Ambulance Transport Program
WASHINGTON — Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) will introduce a bill in the House on Thursday that is aimed at fixing problems with Medicare’s program for non-emergency ambulance transport for certain low-income beneficiaries, MedPage Today has learned. The Repetitive, Scheduled Non-Emergent Ambulance Transport (RSNAT) prior authorization model started in 2014 as a project of the Centers […]
Republicans in Congress Introduce Bill to Restrict Abortion Nationwide
WASHINGTON — Republican members of the House and Senate introduced a bill on Tuesday that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks’ gestation. “Working closely with the preeminent pro-life groups in the country, we are today introducing legislation to ban abortion at a time when unborn children can feel pain,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the […]
ACOs Fight Looming Cuts, Privatization Rhetoric
WASHINGTON — CMS officials responded to concerns from accountable care organization (ACO) leaders about growth, a substantial pending payment cut, and ideological opposition, speaking at the meeting of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) here last week. During a question-and-answer session with CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, NAACOS CEO Clif Gaus, ScD, said the administration’s goal […]
MedPAC Commissioners Mull Proposals to Change Part B Drug Payment
WASHINGTON — Members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) spoke up Friday in favor of considering new approaches to the way Medicare pays for Part B drugs. “I think we’re going in the right direction,” said commissioner Gary Poulsen, MBA, of Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, Utah. “I think this is an improvement.” […]
Gun Violence Bill Contains an Unlikely Provision on PBMs
WASHINGTON — Why does a law aimed at preventing gun violence include a provision dealing with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)? The answer is simple: money. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed by Congress and signed into law on June 25 by President Biden, is designed primarily to decrease gun violence by, among other things, enhancing […]
HHS Proposes Wide-Ranging Rule Barring Discrimination in Healthcare
WASHINGTON — What has 308 pages and discusses everything from pregnancy to Medicare Part B? It’s the proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implementing the non-discrimination parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The proposed rule, which was published August 4 in the Federal Register, implements Section 1557 of the […]