Tweet President Trump announced on July 5 that he is planning to release an Executive Order that would enact a “most favored nation” requirement for prescription drug manufacturers. It was not immediately clear how this Executive Order would differ from the International Pricing Index proposal for Medicare that is currently under review with the Office [...] Read More
When the federal government began requiring hospitals to post their prices at the beginning of this year, CMS Administrator Seema Verma praised the initiative and declared that revealing this financial information would “. . . empower patients.” Three months into the effort, do consumers have more transparency and choice, is there increased price competition among [...] Read More
Louisiana took a precedent-setting step last week to confront the costly public health challenges associated with the Hepatitis C virus, (HCV) at the same time embarking on a plan to eventually rid the state of HCV. Health policy experts nationwide are watching the innovative program, anticipating that it could provide a model for states nationwide. [...] Read More
Today, President Trump released his FY 2020 budget proposal, including $1.313 trillion in discretionary proposals (a reduction of $24 billion from his FY 2019 proposal). On the healthcare front, the budget requests an additional $500 million in funding devoted to childhood cancer research, $291 million to eliminate most new HIV infections within 5 years and [...] Read More
CMS’ Office of the Actuary released a report this week on 2018-2027 projections of national health expenditures. Health care spending is expected to rise from 17.9% to 19.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), an annual rise of 5.5 %, in the next decade. CMS states that the key drivers for the rise in expenditures will [...] Read More