CMS tells Inside Health Policy that it has no plans to outsource the call center operations for Medicare or exchange consumers to another country, responding to a letter from Democratic lawmakers who worried language in a recent request for information (RFI) implied the agency was considering outsourcing the functions.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced legislation to ban surprise medical bills from air ambulances by shielding patients from out-of-network charges while allowing the air ambulance provider and insurer to enter a dispute resolution process.

Beneficiary advocates point to a new analysis that verifies long-standing concerns that patients who buy lower premium short-term limited duration (STLD) are at financial risk should they need to use their coverage, and they are using the analysis to re-up their calls for federal and state action to limit or ban the plans.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) again warned HHS Secretary Alex Azar to slow down the administration’s two proposed interoperability rules at a Senate Appropriations health subcommittee hearing Tuesday (Feb. 25).

Researchers in Health Affairs blog posts called on CMS to integrate behavioral health into the Primary Care First demo and to align that demo with the separate Medicare Independence at Home demo now that the primary care model has been delayed for a year.

Federal immigration officials on Monday (Feb. 24) began enforcing new rules that will deny green cards and some visas to immigrants who are in poor health or deemed likely to rely on Medicaid.

Large employers continue to telegraph their frustration with drug and hospital prices in yet another report that shows an openness to price controls and government interventions that would have been anathema in previous years.

Planned Parenthood is urging Congress to reverse the Trump administration’s rule that blocks Title X recipients from either offering abortion services or referring patients for the services, after the full panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on Monday ruled 7-4 that the rule can go into effect.