Category: Healthcare Law

Facing skeptical lawmakers, state officials strike at critical KanCare report

The agency that oversees KanCare on Monday called a scathing federal report against the Medicaid program incomplete and criticized the quality of its analysis under intense questioning by lawmakers. Susan Mosier, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, defended the program and its employees in a tense appearance before the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.

Federal judge swats Aetna-Humana insurer combo

A federal judge has rejected health insurer Aetna’s plan to buy rival Humana Inc. for about $34 billion and become a major player in the market for Medicare Advantage coverage. U.S. District Judge John Bates says in an opinion filed Monday that he largely agrees with federal regulators who contended that such a combination would hurt competition.

The giant Aetna-Humana merger has been blocked

The deal, in which Aetna proposed to buy Humana for $37 billion , has been ruled anticompetitive by US District Judge John Bates. “In this case, the government alleged that the merger of Aetna and Humana would be likely to substantially lessen competition in markets for individual Medicare Advantage plans and health insurance sold on the public exchanges,” Bates’ decision said.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act will kill more than 43,000 people annually

David Himmelstein is a professor of public health at the City University of New York at Hunter College, a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. Steffie Woolhandler is a professor of public health at the City University of New York at Hunter College, a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Ritter Pharmaceuticals Announces Collaboration with University of…

As part of the collaboration, Dr. Amanda Ramer-Tait at NU and Jens Walter, University of Alberta, two leading scientists in the fields of gut health and microbiome research, plan to conduct research exploring the microbiome’s role in metabolic syndrome. The pre-clinical research is designed to build upon previously published studies suggesting that prebiotics may support improvements in clinical measurements associated with metabolic syndrome.

Louisiana senator to unveil Obamacare replacement

Within hours of becoming the leader of the free world, President Trump’s first action took a swipe at President Obama’s landmark health care reform, signing an executive order that asks federal agencies to ease the burden of Obamacare. FOX 8 Political Analyst Mike Sherman says that pen stroke may simply be a nod to supporters that Trump’s promise to repeal Obamacare won’t be forgotten.

Freedom Of Choice

No more mandate: Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said President Donald Trump “may stop enforcing the individual mandate.” Separately, on CBS’ “Face the Nation” show, she reiterated Republican promises that no one would lose their health insurance under Obamacare while a replacement is being developed.

3 Biotechs Likely to Be Acquired in 2017

The year is still young, but we’ve already seen acquisitions of Ariad and CoLucid . Which biotechs could be scooped up next in 2017? Here’s why Clovis Oncology The number of big companies battling to acquire Medivationin 2016 shows that the oncology space is hot.

Fears of repeal rock Obamacare, Medicaid expansion recipients

Breast-cancer survivor Susan Halpern said she is terrified about losing her health-care coverage if the Trump administration follows through with its promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “I’m trying to figure out a way to survive and keep some kind of health insurance,” said Halpern, 57, who owns a small social-media business.

How Trump’s executive order impacts future of ‘Obamacare’

President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, signs his first executive order on health care, Friday, Jan, 20, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. less President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, signs his first executive order on health care, Friday, Jan, 20, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in … more WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump ‘s f irs t executive order targets the sweeping “Obamacare” law by giving federal agencies broad leeway to chip away at the measure.

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New York governor Andrew Cuomo s is requiring health insurance companies to cover medically necessary abortions and most forms of contraception at no cost to women. The regulations are an effort to safeguard protections women currently receive under the Affordable Care Act.

Required: Full, fast repeal of Obamacare

By keeping control of the Senate and House of Representatives in Washington after sending an Obamacare-repeal bill to the desk of the law’s namesake last January, Republicans won the White House on a message of dismantling the disastrous health-insurance policy. It didn’t hurt them in Kentucky, either, where the GOP won control of the House for the first time in nearly a century and now holds a supermajority in both chambers.

Trump signs executive order that could gut Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate

President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday giving federal agencies broad powers to unwind regulations created under the Affordable Care Act, which might include enforcement of the penalty for people who fail to carry the health insurance that the law requires of most Americans. The executive order, signed in the Oval Office as one of the new president’s first actions, directs agencies to grant relief to all constituencies affected by the sprawling 2010 health care law: consumers, insurers, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, states and others.

#DonaldTrump signs first order on Obamacare

… programs while developing “a free and open market in interstate commerce for the offering of healthcare services and health insurance.” Health experts had speculated that Trump could expand exemptions from the so-called individual mandate, which …

Editorial: KanCare problems never seem to end

… . The Jan. 13 letter was written by James Scott, CMS associate regional administrator for Medicaid and Children’s Health Operation, and he summarized the agency’s concerns: “The results of our on-site review confirm that Kansas is substantively out …

Judge temporarily blocks Planned Parenthood’s ouster from Texas Medicaid

After three days of testimony from attorneys for the state and Planned Parenthood, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks is letting the reproductive health provider stay in Medicaid until Feb. 21. U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks on Thursday delayed Planned Parenthood’s ouster from the state’s Medicaid program until Feb. 21. The decision comes after three days of testimony and arguments in the U.S. District Court in Austin. The reproductive health provider initially sued more than a year ago, but that lawsuit sat dormant until Dec. 20, when the Texas Health and Human Services Commission put Planned Parenthood on notice that its Medicaid funding would end.

Anavex Life Sciences Receives Grant From Rettsyndrome.org to Commence U.S. Phase 2 Trial in 2017

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. and the International Rett Syndrome Foundation, doing business as Rettsyndrome.org today announced that Rettsyndrome.org has committed a financial grant of a minimum of $0.6 million to cover the majority of a planned U.S. multicenter Phase 2 clinical trial of ANAVEX 2-73 for the treatment of Rett syndrome. Scheduled to begin in 2017, the trial will be a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study of ANAVEX 2-73 in patients with Rett syndrome lasting up to 12 weeks.

Puerto Rico Ophthalmologist Group Settles FTC Charges that Members…

The complaint charges that OFTACOOP – also known as Cooperativa de MA dico OftalmA3logos de Puerto Rico – unlawfully orchestrated an agreement among competing ophthalmologists to refuse to deal with a health plan, MCS Advantage, Inc., and its network administrator, Eye Management of Puerto Rico, LLC. OFTACOOP’s concerted refusal to deal forced MCS to abandon its plan to engage Eye Management to create a lower-cost network of ophthalmologists. MCS was also forced to maintain its then-current reimbursement rates paid to ophthalmologists.

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California officials on Wednesday withdrew their request to sell unsubsidized insurance policies to people who can’t prove they’re legally in the United States after learning the decision would fall to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Calling the decision “the first California casualty of the Trump presidency,” Sen. Ricardo Lara said he doesn’t trust the incoming administration to protect people’s privacy and health.

HHS nominee Price sees ‘access’ to coverage as health reform goal – Wed, 18 Jan 2017 PST

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services and one of Congress’s most vehement critics of the Affordable Care Act, told senators on Wednesday that “it is absolutely imperative” for the government to ensure that all Americans “have the opportunity to gain access” to insurance coverage – a more modest goal than the incoming president has set forth in recent days. In a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee committee, Price laid out the central elements of his years-long attempt to replace the ACA along conservative lines.

Battle lines on health, education

A new analysis that at least 18 million people could lose health insurance in the first year if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act without replacing it intensified the battle this week over the landmark healthcare law as US President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans try to figure out how to dismantle it. Democrats seized on the report, issued by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to discredit Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare and rally Americans who are insured under the programme.

Letter: Portman has key role in vote

… years to develop an alternative to the Affordable Care Act that would maintain the patient protections and access to health services for millions of Americans. So far, all they can offer is repeal and debate. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, might be an …