Publications

The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee held a hearing on ways to improve access to quality post-acute care. Millions of Medicare enrollees require care after a hospital stay, such as rehabilitation, hospice, and home health care, and quality and access have suffered over the years, the panelists said. Consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions by national […]

A violent attack in a Pennsylvania hospital in February, resulting in the death of a police officer, has prompted the American Nurses Association (ANA) to ask Congress to pass legislation for a workplace violence prevention standard. “Workplace violence is a longstanding and unresolved issue in healthcare. It is a growing public health crisis that demands […]

U.S. taxpayers spent at least $4.3 billion over a three-year period covering the same Medicaid patients twice or more, The Wall Street Journal reported. Medicaid paid health insurance companies for hundreds of thousands of patients who signed up for the program in two or more separate states. This happened when a patient moved to a different state, […]

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on April 2 over whether federal law allows states free to select which medical providers they want to fund in their Medicaid programs. In Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, South Carolina defended its right to reject Medicaid vendors who provide abortions elsewhere in the nation, which the state […]

A pro-life organization is investigating the death of an 18-year-old woman who died after a late-term abortion at a Colorado-based Planned Parenthood clinic. Keri Kasun, PharmD, told Colorado’s House Health and Human Services Committee the family of Alexis “Lexi” Arguello reached out to her for answers about the medical complication Arguello experienced after having her […]

Republicans are taking much political heat for trying to cut $880 billion in federal spending, with Democrats saying the GOP will cut Medicaid benefits. Gary Alexander, director of the Medicaid and Health Safety Net Initiative at the Paragon Health Institute, talked to Health Care News about how Republicans can turn this challenge into a huge […]

Partisan rhetoric over the federal budget has intensified with Democrat politicians claiming Republicans will cut Medicaid benefits. Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker, a Democrat, argued it will be impossible for Republicans to find $880 billion in spending cuts without touching Medicaid. The House budget reconciliation bill instructs the House Energy & Commerce Committee to cut […]

Ivermectin (IVM) will now be sold over the counter (OTC) in at least one state, with other states in the process of granting that status. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas signed Senate Bill 189 into law on March 25, approving ivermectin for use without a prescription. Idaho’s SB 1211, a similar bill, was passed […]

Food companies across the country may lose their authorization to self-affirm food ingredients, dyes, additives, and stabilizers are safe. Department of Health and Human Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner to explore revisions to the Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) pathway that gives food manufacturers […]

A recent court ruling may increase accountability of school and state employees who overruled parents’ rights to make health care decisions for their children during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, Tanner Smith was sent to his high school’s clinic in Guilford County, North Carolina, for COVID-19 testing. Clinic employees allegedly forced Smith to get […]

“Washington bureaucracy and regulations far too often interfere with health care decisions of patients and their doctors,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in joining forces with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to reintroduce the bicameral Reciprocity Ensures Streamlined Use of Lifesaving Treatments (RESULT) Act, opening the door for more drugs, devices. The legislation would allow the […]

The state of New York is revising a law that would have prohibited hospitals and health care practices from requiring patients to sign “consent to pay” forms before receiving treatment. NY Public Health Law (PHL) 18 was set to take effect in late 2024. It is in limbo after the New York State Department of […]

Government health agencies have launched an effort to ensure “quality, safety, nutritional adequacy, and resilience” of infant formula in the United States. Under Operation Stork Speed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)  will review the nutrients in infant formula and increase testing for heavy-metal contamination. Companies will have to provide transparent and clear labeling on […]

The federal government is allocating an additional $1 billion to combat the avian flu, an outbreak of which led to the killing of millions of healthy chickens and soaring egg prices over the past 12 months. Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins unveiled a “comprehensive strategy to curb highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), protect the U.S. […]

Ten thousand staffers at federal health agencies received pink slips on April 1 in a major overhaul to shrink the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) headcount from 82,000 to 62,000. “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs,” posted HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on X. “But the reality is […]

President Donald Trump ordered the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to develop a framework to enforce hospital price transparency, within 90 days. Trump originally established the rule during his first term in office, but compliance and enforcement under the Biden administration were weak. Trump signed the new “Making America Healthy Again […]

A federal judge in Massachusetts issued a nationwide preliminary injunction to stop the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from setting “indirect costs” for grants at a flat rate of 15 percent. “Indirect costs” are paid to universities and research institutions to cover administrative expenses attributed to research projects. Indirect costs can run as high as […]

A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order defunding institutions that perform transgender treatments on children. U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson in the District of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction on March 4 preventing the order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” from going into effect. The judge ordered the injunction in response […]

Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would empower health care providers to prescribe the best-suited medications for Floridians on Medicaid suffering from “serious mental illnesses” without having to initially prescribe possibly inferior, cheaper medications. The bill, SB 264, “would create an exception to what is known as ‘step therapy’ for a series of psychiatric […]

Simply verifying recipients’ identification could save $1 trillion in entitlement spending per year, LexisNexis Special Services CEO Haywood Talcove told a congressional committee. “Between federal, state, and local government, you can save one trillion dollars a year by simply putting in front-end identity verification, eliminating self-certification, and monitoring the back-end of the programs that are […]

Through House Bill 67, North Carolina would join the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC), which “offers a voluntary, expedited pathway to licensure for qualified physicians who wish to practice in multiple states,” as the IMLC websites states. The legislation would grant physicians licensed in North Carolina “the opportunity to apply for issuance of an expedited license to practice in Compact states, subject to the requirements and restrictions provided in the Compact,” the bill summary states. The bill establishes application procedures, provides for eligibility appeals, and mandates other processes to implement the compact in North Carolina.

North Carolina Senate Bill 370 and House Bill 455 would eliminate the certificate of need requirement for all health care facilities in the state. This CON reform would greatly improve access to health care in North Carolina while putting beneficial pressures on costs and quality by encouraging greater investment in new facilities and improvements of existing ones.

Republicans are in a bind. To give substance to their new budget bill, they need to cut Medicaid spending by billions of dollars. Yet the White House and many congressional Republicans insist that they do not want to cut Medicaid benefits. Here is where the Department of Government Efficiency can come to the rescue. In mainstream […]

Medicaid issued approximately $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the past decade, double the agency’s stated amount, the Paragon Health Institute estimates. “Cracking down on improper payments is a necessary first step that could provide hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid savings for federal taxpayers,” states the March 3 policy brief based on examination […]