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Federal judge halts HHS, ACIP vaccine decisions: What to know
There has been a whirlwind of activity surrounding federal vaccine policy over the past few weeks and especially the past two days. The most important and impactful recent update is the decision from a federal judge Monday that temporarily stayed multiple decisions made by HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on…
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How STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence covers the quickly evolving FDA
The recent announcement that Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), is leaving the agency — for the second time — is a reminder of how challenging it can be to keep up with the rapid changes at the FDA. At STAT News, Lizzy Lawrence notes in her article…
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Reports show Medicare insurers boosted income in questionable ways
In 2024, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that health insurers added new — and questionable — diagnoses to 1.7 million Medicare Advantage (MA) members, generating approximately $7.5 billion in higher payments for those insurers. For journalists, payments that raise questions from regulators translate into a major story because they can harm patients and…
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Are bigger hospitals and insurers better for consumers?
UnitedHealthcare corporate headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn. in 2024. Photo by Chad Davis (CC BY 2.0) Over the past 30 years, consolidation of health care systems in the United States has accelerated through mergers and acquisitions, researchers reported last year in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. After reviewing 34 years worth of studies…
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Dr. Oz touts ‘AI avatars’ to address rural mental health care shortage. Experts urge caution
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz, M.D., MBA, recently suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) could offer a way to help rural communities access mental health care amid a shortage of providers. “There’s no question about it — whether you want it or not — the best way to help some of…
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How Wall Street Journal reporters uncovered Medicare Advantage overbilling
In the fall of 2022, a team of Wall Street Journal reporters asked the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for access to Medicare data for a series on suspected overbilling in Medicare Advantage. “We basically took the unusual step of asking CMS to treat a group of journalists as researchers for purposes…
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Elder services funding in the 2026 budget bill — is it enough?
Despite a brief government shutdown, Trump signed the 2026 budget bill shortly after Congress passed it on Feb. 3. It will fund the federal government, with a separate carve out and negotiation for the Department of Homeland Security, through September 30, 2026. The bill includes funding for several vital programs and services for older adults,…
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