President-Elect Donald Trump nominated celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead CMS. Healthcare leaders have mixed feelings on the news — for instance, one CEO pointed out that Dr. Oz could advance the food-as-medicine movement, and others noted that his appointment may decrease pharmaceutical innovation and access to certain medications.
Experts agree that the incoming Trump administration will likely shake things up in the prescription drug world — most notably when it comes to research and development, drug pricing and PBM reform.
As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.
When it comes to the effects that the upcoming Trump presidency will have on healthcare, attendees' attitudes ranged from cautiously optimistic to fairly anxious. Some of the issues they highlighted included mental health parity, telehealth prescribing flexibilities, and the role of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Experts from BRG recently discussed the two presidential candidates' stances on key healthcare issues, including drug pricing, Medicaid and AI.
A new CMS proposed rule aims to make significant changes to Affordable Care Act marketplaces, including increasing the annual open enrollment period by a month and restoring the duties of navigators who help consumers from underserved populations enroll in plans on the federally facilitated exchange.
After scrapping work requirements for Medicaid eligibility in four states, CMS has added Arizona and Indiana to the list. These requirements have long been controversial, facing litigation and strong opposition, but proponents say they incentivize people to find jobs.
The future looks bright for the integrated specialty pharmacy model – for health systems, providers, and most importantly, for patients.
In a move that ACOs found "disappointing," CMS has declined to extend the Next Generation ACO Model beyond 2021. Though evaluations have found that the model did not generate net savings for Medicare, proponents argue that the program was successful.
In a wide-ranging interview, the National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Micky Tripathi discussed his career and how his varied experiences have expanded his perspective. He also spoke about ONC's plans for the future, which include "evangelizing" about the opportunities the federal interoperability rules will create for the industry.
Aetna will now cover breast augmentation for trans women, signaling hope for increased access to healthcare for the transgender community. The coverage expansion comes after transgender individuals and groups advocated for the change.
After declaring a state of emergency on Friday, Trump announced that Google would be building a website that could route users to drive-thru testing sites for COVID-19. Alphabet’s subsidiary, Verily, said the tool was in the early stages of development, and that it planned to roll out testing in the Bay Area.
Executives from Imagine360, Verily, BrightInsight, Lantern, and Rhapsody shared their approaches to reducing healthcare costs and facilitating digital transformation.
While AWS, Intel, Cisco, and others pull out of a large health IT conference in Orlando due to Covid-19 fears, President Donald Trump will be traveling there to address the issue of interoperability in healthcare.
Equity research analysts wrote in a note Thursday that the move could have a beneficial read-across to another drug that has the same target as Repatha.
By drawing younger or healthier consumers out of the ACA marketplace, the short-term plan expansion will add up to a 1.7 percent increase to premiums next year, according to the industry lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the navigators that operate in the 34 states that use the federal marketplace — including many health and religious organizations — were ineffective and had outlived their usefulness.
“The Supreme Court will ultimately decide if nearly 800,000 West Virginians with pre-existing conditions will lose their healthcare,” said U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia)