Who is Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead Medicare and Medicaid?

Dr Oz, best known for his daytime talkshow, leaned heavily into Trumpism during his failed 2022 run for US Senate

Donald Trump has chosen Mehmet Oz, best known for starring in his eponymous daytime talkshow for more than a decade and leaning heavily into Trumpism during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The cardiothoracic surgeon, who faced immense backlash from the medical and scientific communities for pushing misinformation at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, will oversee the agency that operates on a $2.6tn annual budget and provides healthcare to more than 100 million people.

“I am honored to be nominated by [Donald Trump] to lead CMS,” Oz posted on X on Tuesday. “I look forward to serving my country to Make America Healthy Again under the leadership of HHS Secretary [Robert F Kennedy Jr].”

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New federal US rules to curb use of prior approval by private health insurances

Providers working in federal programs will be required to expedite patients’ prior authorizations for medications and/or surgery

A new set of rules from the Biden administration seeks to rein in private health insurance companies’ use of prior authorization – a byzantine practice that requires people to seek insurance company permission before obtaining medication or having a procedure.

The cost-containment strategy often delays care and forces patients, or their doctors, to navigate opaque and labyrinthine appeals.

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Millions risk losing US healthcare when Covid emergency declaration expires

An estimated 5.3 million to 14.2 million could lose Medicaid coverage when the public health emergency ends in July

When the US federal government’s pandemic health emergency declaration expires, millions of Americans are at risk of losing healthcare coverage through Medicaid with potentially devastating consequences.

According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an estimated 5.3 million to 14.2 million could lose their Medicaid coverage when the Covid-19 public health emergency ends on 15 July if it is not extended.

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Obamacare ruling won’t affect coverage a ” yet

A federal judge's ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional was a Friday-evening bombshell and a first-round victory for opponents of the law. But it will need to survive review by higher courts to have any effect on the program that's credited with expanding health insurance to about 19 million people in the U.S. A crimson banner appeared on the federally run healthcare.gov website over the weekend to reassure potential customers: "Court's decision does not affect 2019 enrollment or coverage."

Kansas Medicaid expansion in doubt despite governor support

Democratic and moderate Republicans lawmakers worked together last year to try to make Kansas the latest state to expand Medicaid, only to see their bipartisan effort rewarded with a veto from former conservative GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. The election this month of a governor who supports Medicaid expansion seemed to remove the biggest hurdle for those hoping to bring health coverage to thousands of the state's poor.

Democratic candidates focus on health care as midterms near

Marylea Evans recounted how, decades ago, her husband had been unable to get health insurance after developing cancer, forcing the couple to sell some of their Texas ranch to pay for his treatment. Now she was worried about Democratic ads saying McSally, currently a congresswoman, supported legislation removing the requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Premiums for popular ACA health insurance dip for the first time

The average price tag for the most popular level of insurance sold in the Affordable Care Act's federal marketplaces is dropping slightly, the first time the rates have stopped going up since the health plans were created a half-dozen years ago. In the 39 states that rely on HealthCare.gov, the monthly premium is dipping by 1.5 percent for 2019 in a tier of coverage that forms the basis for the ACA's federal insurance subsidies, according to federal figures released Tuesday.

Medicare upgrades its website ahead of sign-up season

In this March 22, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump , left, and Texas State Sen. Dawn Buckingham, right, listen as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma speaks during a meeting on women in healthcare in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Medicare is modernizing its website to make it more useful for beneficiaries, particularly younger ones already going online for information from insurers, hospitals and doctors.

Daily on Healthcare: HHS to greenlight more state Medicaid work…

SIGN UP! If you'd like to continue receiving Washington Examiner's Daily on Healthcare newsletter, SUBSCRIBE HERE: HHS to greenlight more state Medicaid work requirements. The Trump administration will approve more state requirements that require certain Medicaid beneficiaries work or train for work as a condition of staying enrolled in the program, even though a lawsuit knocked down a related provision in Kentucky and another suit is pending in Arkansas.

Funding fix for Dayton center for drug-exposed babies OK’d by Senate

The Ohio Department of Medicaid says it is working on a proposal to the federal government to allow the health-insurance program to cover some of the care at Brigid's Path, the state's only standalone recovery center for drug-exposed infants. The nonprofit center opened in December in the Dayton area and has had to limit services to eight infants at a time, despite high demand and 24 beds.

Democrats seize on cherry-picked claim that ‘Medicare-for-all’…

"We know that Medicaid expansion and Medicare-for-all actually save this state and this nation $2 trillion if it were fully implemented." - Andrew Gillum, Democratic candidate for Florida governor, in a primary debate, Aug. 2, 2018 As our colleague David Weigel reported, Democrats have latched onto the catchy idea of "Medicare-for-all" as a way of expressing their support for universal health care.

The Health 202: Medicaid advocates now have two more studies to back them up

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam reacts after signing the state budget bills that include Medicaid expansion during a ceremony Thursday, June 7, 2018, at the state Capitol in Richmond. This year, the perennial struggle over the future of the health-care program for low-income Americans became even more pronounced.

Trumpcare Could Lose Big In Tuesday’s Ohio Special Election

Republican congressional candidate Troy Balderson speaks next to US President Donald Trump during a rally August 4, 2018 at Olentangy Orange High School in Lewis Center, Ohio. Trump and Republicans are concerned Balderson could lose to Democrat Danny O'Connor in the special election Tuesday, Aug. 7. Tuesday's special election in a conservative Ohio Congressional district in the Columbus suburbs could be a blow to future efforts to roll back Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, let alone repealing the law.

Trump’s top Medicare official slams ‘Medicare for All’

The Trump administration's Medicare chief on Wednesday slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a national health plan, saying "Medicare for All" would undermine care for seniors and become "Medicare for None." The broadside from Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma came in a San Francisco speech that coincides with a focus on health care in contentious midterm congressional elections.

Trumpa s top Medicare official slams a Medicare for Alla

The Trump administration's Medicare chief on Wednesday slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a national health plan, saying "Medicare for All" would undermine care for seniors and become "Medicare for None." The broadside from Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma came in a San Francisco speech that coincides with a focus on health care in contentious midterm congressional elections.

Reversal: Kentucky restoring Medicaid benefits for thousands

Dental and vision care benefits will be restored for hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients in a sudden reversal by Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration following an outcry over the recent cuts. The coverage had been abruptly cut at the start of July after a federal judge rejected the Republican governor's plan to overhaul Kentucky's Medicaid program.