Telehealth lobbyists downplay the HHS Office of Inspector General’s latest findings on fraudulent telehealth billing, raised in an OIG General Telehealth Use and Program Integrity Risks report released Dec. 1, saying when taken into context the data actually show there is little reason to be concerned.
New Jersey has asked its small group and individual market plans, including those sold through its state-based exchange, to cover abortion services for the 2023 plan year after state’s Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) found regulatory action is needed to ensure patients have access to the services without exceptions.
Industry sources say it’s unclear whether any policies aimed at lowering prescription drug costs will make it into Congress’ year-end package, as individual lawmakers and stakeholder groups step up efforts to get prescription drug-relation measures into the spending bill.
With just two days left for seniors to choose their Medicare coverage options for 2023, the Alliance of Community Health Plans is upping pressure on CMS to increase its oversight of Medicare Advantage marketing, particularly of third-party marketing organizations, but in a way that doesn’t increase plans’ workload.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisers earlier this year were weighing whether to recommend the bivalent Omicron boosters, they were hoping to reach uptake numbers similar to that of a normal year for flu vaccines, but almost three months into the booster rollout, uptake is drastically lagging behind flu shot numbers -- an issue some public health experts say is driven by “vaccine fatigue.”
Six months after HHS and CMS pressed the Federal Communications Commission to issue a statement confirming state and local governments and their contractors, including Medicaid health plans, can send texts or pre-recorded calls to beneficiaries about the eligibility redetermination process set to restart at the end of the public health emergency without violating the Telephone Consumers Protection Act, stakeholders are growing increasing anxious about the lack of an FCC response and the Association of Community Health Plans (ACHP) has turned to Congress for help.
