In summertime, cows wait under a canopy to be milked at Mark McAfee’s farm in Fresno, California. From his Cessna 210 Centurion propeller plane, the 63-year-old can view grazing lands of the dairy company he runs that produces products such as unpasteurized milk and cheese for almost 2,000 stores. Federal regulators say it’s risky business….
Listen as senior producer Zach Dyer reports on the public health concerns over online sports betting and a fund in Missouri that might help with addiction treatment and prevention. The parking lot at the Super One Stop in Granite City, Illinois, is full. The convenience store just across the Mississippi River from Missouri sells liquor,…
By DANIEL STONE As a doctor, I consider Secretary Xavier Becerra and his Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to be allies of practitioners like me. The behemoth federal agency administers Medicare and Medicaid, the Food and Drug Administration, and an army of public health workers. The Surgeon General, symbolic leader of the nation’s…
That is the questions an NBER working paper by Fleck, Heathcote, Storesletten, and Violante aims to answer. Using a variety of survey and administrative data, the authors reach the following 8 conclusions: (i) The federal tax and transfer system is progressive. (ii) State and local tax and transfer systems are close to proportional, on average….
The structure of Atalanta Therapeutics’ RNA interference drugs enables them to distribute broadly and deeply into brain tissue. Lead programs for Huntington’s disease and a rare inherited form epilepsy are on track to enter the clinic this year. The post RNAi Biotech Atalanta Unveils $97M to Reach the Clinic in Two Rare Neuro Diseases appeared…
According to the National Community Pharmacists Association, 60.4% of independent pharmacists are weighing not stocking one or more of the first 10 drugs in the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program. Another 32.8% have already decided not to stock one or more of the drugs. The post Many Community Pharmacists Won’t Carry Drugs in Medicare Negotiation…
States and the nation’s health industry were thrown into disarray after the Trump administration ordered Monday that the government freeze nearly all federal grants at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, a sweeping directive that at least initially appeared to include funding for Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that covers more than 70 million Americans. By…
Nearly 50 million prior authorization requests were submitted to Medicare Advantage insurers on behalf of Medicare Advantage enrollees in 2023, of which 3.2 million (6.4%) were denied. Just 11.7% of denied requests were appealed, though 81.7% of appeals overturned the initial denial in Medicare Advantage. Substantially fewer prior authorization requests were made in traditional Medicare,…
This fact sheet reviews current national and state policies around Emergency Contraception, including methods, patient awareness, access and availability, and insurance coverage. Among methods discussed are ulipristal acetate (ella), intrauterine devices (copper IUDs and levonorgestrel IUDs), and progestin-based pills (Plan B and Next Choice).
This guide provides an overview of executive orders and other executive actions made by the Trump Administration since January 21, 2025 that directly address or affect U.S. global health efforts. This resource identifies each executive action, describes its purpose and actions taken, and outlines the implications and what happens next for each. The resource will…