By JEREMY SHANE What’s behind the coming health care reckoning? Most industry leaders have their preferred list of culprits: not us! Left-leaning critics blame large insurers, drug companies, and private equity firms. Take the profit and self-dealing out of health care. Those on the right blame excessive regulation, poorly-designed insurance markets, or limits on individuals’…
CalPERS has entered into a five-year agreement with CVS Caremark, who will provide outpatient prescription drug benefits for about 587,000 members enrolled in basic or Medicare HMO or PPO plans. The post CalPERS Selects CVS Caremark as PBM, Replacing OptumRx appeared first on MedCity News.
This issue brief gives an overview of the main systems used by the federal government to track vaccine safety and adverse events following vaccinations. The brief reviews the history of federal vaccine safety systems, describes the key systems and their strengths and limitations, and also discusses how vaccine safety issues have become the subject of…
The new reconciliation law includes a $50 billion rural health fund. This brief describes the rural health fund, explains what the law says about the allocation of funds, and highlights outstanding questions about how the funds will be distributed across and within states to pay rural hospitals and for other purposes.
Healthcare providers are making cybersecurity progress, but serious vulnerabilities remain — especially when it comes to AI governance, third-party risk, and limited budgets. Fortified Health Security CEO Dan Dodson urged the industry to stop waiting for perfect conditions and act decisively to strengthen their defenses. The post Despite Progress, Healthcare Cybersecurity Is Still Falling Short…
This policy watch summarizes recent proposed actions by states related to state-funded health coverage for immigrants and trends in other legislation enacted during the 2025 session that have implications for immigrants.
Though anselamimab failed its Phase 3 test in light chain amyloidosis, AstraZeneca points to encouraging results in a pre-defined patient subgroup — which may not be a winning strategy. Prothena resurrected its failed drug candidate for the disease based on a subgroup analysis, only to see that antibody fall short in a pivotal study. The…
The transformation of our healthcare system can start now, with employers adopting value-based care models, communities demanding better access, and policymakers challenging the status quo. The post The Crisis That Unites Us: Healthcare Costs Are Breaking Everyone appeared first on MedCity News.
The Medicare Part D program provides an outpatient prescription drug benefit to more than 50 million older adults and people with long-term disabilities in Medicare who enroll in private plans, including stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) to supplement traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans (MA-PDs) that include drug coverage and other Medicare-covered benefits….
This brief focuses on the stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plan marketplace and its somewhat uncertain future, in light of recent trends in plan availability and the potential for another year of premium increases in 2026, in part depending on what the Trump administration decides to do with the temporary Part D premium stabilization…