The Trump administration on Tuesday (Dec. 22) finished a rule that implements the Trump administration’s executive order requiring community health centers to pass 340b discounts for insulin and EpiPens to patients.
Forgot password?
Sign up today and your first download is free.
REGISTER
Daily News
December 22, 2020
The U.S. government and Moderna are considering conducting dose sparing trials of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine to see if it could be just as effective at doses lower than the 100 micrograms for which it’s currently indicated, Operation Warp Speed chief Moncef Slaoui said during a press call Tuesday (Dec. 21).
312 words
Congress this morning struck pieces of long-standing policy that had essentially given states primary responsibility for insurance regulation, despite pushback from the state insurance regulators and industry stakeholders who warned that striking the antitrust exemption for health insurance in the McCarran-Ferguson Act could have far reaching implications and would only add administrative burden.
241 words
Congress on Tuesday (Dec. 22) axed a decades-old policy that blocked the federal government stepping into anti-trust issues involving health insurers, despite pushback from the state insurance regulators and industry that argued striking the antitrust exemption in the McCarran-Ferguson Act was a far-reaching move that would undermine state regulation of insurers, create conflicting federal and state oversight, and spur costly litigation.
786 words
Congress on Tuesday (Dec. 22) axed a decades-old policy that blocked the federal government stepping into anti-trust issues involving health insurers, despite pushback from the state insurance regulators and industry that argued striking the antitrust exemption in the McCarran-Ferguson Act was a far-reaching move that would undermine state regulation of insurers, create conflicting federal and state oversight, and spur costly litigation.
842 words
CMS will delay for two years a policy of subtracting copay coupons and other patient financial assistance from prices used to determine how much Medicaid pays for drugs, according to the final Medicaid best price rule out Monday (Dec. 21).
878 words
The year-end government funding and COVID-19 relief package passed Monday night (Dec. 21) funds many of the so-called health extenders through 2023, or Sept. 30, 2023, and also includes Medicaid policies that were not in previous packages, like Medicaid supplemental pay reporting requirements and non-emergency medical transportation coverage requirements.
790 words
Congress’ year-end package tackles a wide range of Medicare policies lawmakers discussed throughout 2020, which include addressing workforce shortages through Medicare graduate medical education, extending rural health care programs and codifying CMS’ public-private partnership to find health care waste and fraud.
767 words
Drug makers are largely unscathed by the year-end government spending bill because Congress instead used hospital surprise billing legislation to pay for coronavirus relief, but the legislative package does include proposals that were part of drug price transparency bills, including one to give congressional Medicare and Medicaid advisers data on closely guarded rebates.
351 words
Several insurers across the country have either not included cost-free coverage of PrEP as required or make it difficult for the enrollee to figure out how to get the coverage, according to an analysis by the HIV + HEP Policy Institute, which calls on regulators to enforce the law.
856 words
Congress on Monday evening (Dec. 21) passed a combined year-end spending and coronavirus relief package that gives FDA a total of $3.2 billion in discretionary funding in fiscal 2021, a $43 million dollar increase over fiscal 2020 levels, and $55 million for the agency’s COVID-19 response efforts.
572 words
December 21, 2020
As part of the year-end package, lawmakers plan to mitigate effects of changes to the 2021 physician fee schedule that would raise pay for some while drastically cutting pay for others, according to a House Ways & Means Republican summary, and the bill also is expected to extend the Medicare sequester moratorium for three months -- a shorter extension than sought by providers.
714 words
Congress will delay the start date of the highly criticized CMS radiation oncology model demonstration until Jan. 1, 2022, six months beyond what CMS proposed in a final rule earlier in December but in line with what stakeholders had requested, according to a House Ways & Means Committee GOP summary of provisions in the year-end legislation hammered out over the weekend (Dec. 21).
323 words
House and Senate leadership agreed to include surprise billing legislation in the year-end spending deal that both chambers plan to take up Monday (Dec. 21), but the legislation now bans the arbiter from considering Medicare and Medicaid rates.
446 words
Federal Judge Catherine Blake said Friday she will rule by Dec. 24 on whether to put on hold the Trump administration’s plan to tie Medicare Part B reimbursement to foreign drug prices.
221 words
Congress’ year-end coronavirus relief and spending deal appears to include FDA-related provisions that would extend the agency’s rare disease priority review voucher program until 2024, allow biosimilars applicants to reference previously approved indications in their applications, give FDA authority to require that generic drug labels be updated, and clarify that orphan drugs and biologics must prove clinical superiority.
468 words
December 20, 2020
A ban on so-called “gag clauses” between insurers and providers, a push to ensure compliance with mental health parity rules and new disclosures on drug spending’s effect on insurance premiums are in the final COVID-19 relief package, according to an unconfirmed text of the bill floating late Sunday (Dec. 20).
548 words
Government advisers on Sunday (Dec. 20) recommended people aged 75 and older and front-line essential workers -- including first responders, teachers, grocery store workers and postal workers -- should be second in line for coronavirus vaccines, after health care workers and nursing home residents.
635 words
December 19, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisers on Saturday (Dec. 19) unanimously agreed that Moderna’s two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine should be administered to people ages 18 years and older, following FDA’s decision to grant emergency use authorization to the vaccine Friday evening (Dec. 18).
437 words
Operation Warp Speed Chief Operating Officer Gen. Gustave Perna on Saturday (Dec. 19) tried to clarify why some states received fewer doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine this week than had originally been promised, saying vaccine lots must be cleared “in accordance with FDA” before being released for distribution.
885 words
Pages
© 2002-2021. Inside Washington Publishers