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☆ Debt-Limit Bill Cancels Almost $30 Billion in Pandemic Relief Funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/debt-limit-bill-cancels-almost-30-billion-in-pandemic-relief-funding-98c2dbdc

Persons: Dow Jones

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-biden-plans-to-name-mandy-cohen-as-cdc-director-32ba1e2d

Persons: Dow Jones, biden, cohen, 32ba1e2d

☆ Medicare Plans to Cover Alzheimer’s Drugs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ How a shockingly resilient jobs market saved the US from a recession
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Several measures from Friday's jobs report show the labor market is stronger than it's been in decades. But Terrazas pointed to potential concerns in the labor market and for interest rates. "If it's the former, it's just a matter of time before gravity catches up with the labor market," Terrazas said. Overall though, the different robust labor market data suggests the US could maybe avoid a recession as has been the case so far in 2023. Despite potential risks in the job market, Pollak believes there's a possibility that the US continues to avoid a recession.

☆ Something Congress Might Agree On: Tackling Drug Costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Stephanie Armour | Liz Essley Whyte | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Drug pricing is complicated and secretive. WSJ explains how the flow of money, drugs and rebates behind the scenes may drive up the price of prescription medicine for consumers. Illustration: Mallory BranganRepublicans and Democrats in Congress may find rare agreement in the coming months on legislation taking aim at high drug costs. The lawmakers are rolling out proposals that aim to reduce drug spending by insurers and government agencies, as well as by patients at the pharmacy trying to fill prescriptions for diabetes and other medicines.

Some have sought to toughen existing work requirements for food and cash assistance, as well as adding similar conditions to Medicaid eligibility. Photo: KEN CEDENO/REUTERSWASHINGTON—House Republicans are pushing to require more people seeking federal assistance to find jobs, thrusting a long-running debate over aid for poor Americans into the middle of a battle with Democrats over raising the debt limit. In legislation that passed the House on Wednesday with only GOP support, lawmakers moved to toughen existing work requirements for food and cash assistance, while proposing to add similar conditions to be eligible for Medicaid, a healthcare program for low-income and disabled people.

☆ Transgender Medicaid Coverage Drives Widening Partisan Gap Between States
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Transgender-rights advocates demonstrated in February at the Statehouse in Mississippi, where lawmakers moved to restrict some coverage for care of gender-transitioning patients. Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/Associated PressWASHINGTON—Medicaid is at the center of a widening partisan divide among states over transgender healthcare, where some Americans are denied access to gender-related treatments while others are seeing the availability of such care expand. The Medicaid insurance program, which covers more than 90 million low-income or disabled Americans, has become a way for states to signal sharply divergent positions on transgender-specific care. Republican-led states including Mississippi and Tennessee, where the GOP controls both legislative chambers and the governorship, have recently introduced legislation to restrict some coverage for care of gender-transitioning patients.

☆ Most Major Insurers to Continue Preventive Care Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Preventive healthcare services include mammograms and cancer screenings. Photo: Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune/Getty ImagesThe majority of insurers in the U.S. don’t expect to drop no-cost preventive healthcare services as a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act requirement works its way through the courts, according to a letter to lawmakers from the six trade groups representing the insurance industry. Their decision was outlined Wednesday in a letter by trade groups to House and Senate Democratic health committee leaders, who on April 12 wrote to a dozen of the nation’s largest health insurers and trade associations asking whether they intend to cover all recommended preventive services without cost-sharing until all appellate review in the case is concluded.

☆ Single Dose of Omicron-Targeting Vaccines to Become Main Covid-19 Shot in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Liz Essley Whyte | Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The vaccine will target both the Omicron variant and the original strain of the Covid-19 virus. Americans seeking messenger RNA vaccines for Covid-19 for the first time will get one, updated shot targeting both the Omicron variant and the original strain of the virus under new moves rolled out Tuesday by federal health officials. The Food and Drug Administration also authorized a second booster of the updated shots for people at high risk of Covid-19, specifically people 65 years and older or people who have weak immune systems.

☆ Planned Curbs on Telehealth Prescriptions Spark Backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Stephanie Armour | Liz Essley Whyte | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Proposed telehealth rules call for in-person visit for online prescriptions of controlled-substance drugs such as buprenorphine, a medication for opioid-use disorder. WASHINGTON—A federal plan to resume tighter limits on the prescribing of controlled substances through telehealth has spurred a backlash from some medical and patient advocacy groups who say the requirements would create barriers to care. The organizations are urging the Drug Enforcement Administration to reconsider proposed rules that would let doctors remotely prescribe a 30-day supply of some drugs, including buprenorphine for opioid-use disorder, as well as ketamine and testosterone, but require at least one in-person visit for further prescriptions.

☆ Medicare Cracks Down on Deceptive Advertising, Service Denials by Privately-Run Plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/medicare-cracks-down-on-deceptive-advertising-service-denials-by-privately-run-plans-97bab94b

☆ Medicaid Eligibility Changes Set to Hit Hospitals, Insurers, States
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Hospital leaders worry they will be left covering the costs of more uninsured patients as millions of people lose Medicaid coverage. WASHINGTON—An unprecedented effort by states to review the eligibility of the more than 90 million people on Medicaid carries high financial stakes for industry groups, including hospitals that risk paying more to cover uninsured patients and insurers that could lose some of the money they get for managing state Medicaid programs. Eligibility reviews for people who get Medicaid coverage were paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. The resumption of those reviews and disenrollment of people, technically starting Saturday, has industry working with federal regulators, patient advocacy groups and state Medicaid offices to urgently inform beneficiaries. All of them are working to tell enrollees what steps they can take to avoid losing coverage or how to secure other types of health insurance if they earn too much for the program.

☆ Judge Strikes Down Some Affordable Care Act Rules on Preventive Health Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Under the ACA, health plans must generally provide access to no-cost preventive care. WASHINGTON—A federal judge in Texas struck down a major part of the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most insurers cover certain preventive health services, in a ruling that applies nationwide and will likely be appealed. Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued on Thursday a nationwide injunction striking down the requirement that most commercial insurers fully cover dozens of preventive-care services and screenings recommended by a federal task force with no out-of-pocket consumer costs.

☆ Dreaded Medical Paperwork Required by Health Insurers to Be Trimmed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Anna Wilde Mathews | Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

UnitedHealthcare said it would cut its use of the prior authorization process. The paperwork required by health insurers to get many medical procedures or tests—one of the biggest gripes of doctors and patients—is getting rolled back. UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurer in the U.S., said it would cut its use of the prior authorization process. Starting in the third quarter, it will remove many procedures and medical devices from its list requiring the signoff.

☆ First Drugs Facing Medicare Price Penalty Named by U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Stephanie Armour | Jared S. Hopkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Humira, which treats rheumatoid-arthritis, is one of the 27 drugs named by U.S. health officials whose prices went up more than the rate of inflation. U.S. health officials released the first list of drugs paid for by the government’s Medicare insurance program whose prices went up more than the rate of inflation and and will face a penalty under a new federal law. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday named 27 drugs that had the large price increases, including rheumatoid-arthritis treatment Humira from AbbVie Inc. and Yescarta lymphoma therapy from Gilead Sciences Inc., and will face the price-increase penalty in the form of a rebate.

☆ First Drugs Facing Medicare Price Penalty Are Named
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Stephanie Armour | Jared S. Hopkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Humira, for rheumatoid arthritis, is one of the drugs facing a price-increase penalty. U.S. health officials released the first list of drugs paid for by the government’s Medicare insurance program whose prices went up more than the rate of inflation and will face a penalty under a new federal law. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday named 27 drugs that had the large price increases, including rheumatoid-arthritis treatment Humira from AbbVie Inc. and Yescarta lymphoma therapy from Gilead Sciences Inc., and will face the price-increase penalty in the form of a rebate.

☆ NIH Top Job Still Empty as Candidates Back Out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Liz Essley Whyte | Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Shuran Huang for The Wall Street JournalDiscoveries by National Institutes of Health scientists and grant recipients have been awarded more than 100 Nobel Prizes. The top job at the National Institutes of Health, a prestigious role that has attracted a Nobel Prize winner and other leading scientists, is going unfilled as candidates back out. At least two potential choices for the job have walked away, and the White House has struggled finding qualified candidates willing to fill a job that would probably force them to take a substantial pay cut and face popular attacks on scientists, people familiar with the search said.

☆ On the Covid-19 Lockdown’s Third Anniversary, Biden Has Moved On
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Stephanie Armour | Sabrina Siddiqui | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—President Biden marked the first anniversary of the Covid-19 lockdowns two years ago with a high-profile speech, and his administration gave frequent briefings on the topic. Last year, he gave an address on the American Rescue Plan and the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic. On Saturday, the third anniversary of the shutdowns that were triggered by the pandemic, Mr. Biden has no public events planned and his White House has largely shifted focus away from a virus that continues to kill about 2,000 people a week but ranks low among priorities for the American public.

☆ Fight Over How to Settle Surprise Medical Bills Leaves Cases in Limbo
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Just over a year after going into effect, legislation to protect consumers from unexpected medical bills has hospitals, doctors and insurers fighting over a process that was supposed to help resolve billing disputes. The Department of Health and Human Services was forced to pause an arbitration process used to settle billing disagreements after a federal judge last month vacated parts of the regulation.

President Biden’s budget proposal will kick off monthslong spending negotiations with lawmakers. WASHINGTON—President Biden’s budget blueprint will lay out plans to save hundreds of billions of dollars by seeking to lower drug prices, raising some business taxes, cracking down on fraud and cutting spending he sees as wasteful, according to White House officials. Mr. Biden is set to release his fiscal 2024 budget plan on Thursday. Administration officials said it would propose cutting federal budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. But the release of the budget will kick off monthslong spending negotiations with lawmakers.

President Biden’s budget plan will also outline several new prescription-drug-related proposals. WASHINGTON—President Biden’s coming budget blueprint will propose extending the solvency of a key Medicare trust fund by at least 25 years, according to the White House, in part by increasing tax rates on people earning more than $400,000 a year. The plan would raise Medicare taxes to 5% from 3.8% for those top earners and effectively expand the reach of the tax so it applies to business income as well as investments, wages and self-employment income. Mr. Biden would also redirect some existing taxes from the government’s general fund to a Medicare fund. The Medicare program provides health insurance for adults 65 and older, as well as some younger people with disabilities.

☆ Biden’s New Chief of Staff Enters as Political Rancor Heats Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Sabrina Siddiqui | Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Jeff Zients is now the president’s top aide after leading the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response. WASHINGTON—On his first day as White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients dispatched an all-staff note that said governing is never easy. Many challenges await President Biden ’s top aide, including a debt-ceiling showdown, escalating tensions with China and a divided Congress that will impede the president’s agenda. It is markedly different ground for Mr. Zients, a 56-year-old former business executive who led the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response from January 2021 to April 2022 with a managerial-like emphasis on tasks and outcomes. He isn’t as steeped in the inner workings of Washington and politics as his predecessor, Ron Klain , despite taking the job as Mr. Biden prepares for a likely re-election campaign.

☆ Vince McMahon reportedly wants at least $9 billion for potential sale of WWE
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ex-WWE CEO Vince McMahon reportedly wants at least $9 billion for the company, according to Bloomberg. He has been considering a sale since his return, and several bids reportedly have been submitted. Days after McMahon's return, WWE also announced that Stephanie McMahon was resigning as co-CEO, and Khan would serve as the lone CEO going forward. Last month, Khan said reports that a sale to the Saudi Arabian fund was complete in principle "totally false." McMahon's desired $9 billion is a high ask considering the company reported $1.29 billion in sales last year, and the $9 billion price tag is about 23 times the company's operating income, according to Bloomberg.

☆ Biden Administration Calls for Nursing Homes to Disclose More Ownership Details
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Biden administration says it would make public the more detailed data it wants to collect on nursing-home ownership and management. The Biden administration on Monday proposed requiring nursing homes to disclose more information about their ownership and management to provide clarity about investments by private-equity companies or real-estate investment trusts. The proposal also would require nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to share more information about individuals or organizations that provide administrative services or clinical consulting to nursing homes. Currently, families often don’t know what companies may provide care in nursing homes.

☆ Novavax to Sell 1.5 Million More Covid Vaccines to U.S. Government
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Liz Essley Whyte | Stephanie Armour | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. government has agreed to buy 1.5 million more doses of Novavax Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine, the company said, part of efforts preparing for the end of government purchases and the start of a commercial market for the shots. Novavax wouldn’t provide the monetary value of the deal or the price that the federal government would pay per dose.

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