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Companies can set such high prices because of a quirk in Medicare pricing rules, industry experts said. For the first six months of a new bandage product’s life, Medicare will set the reimbursement rate at whatever price a company chooses. After that, the agency adjusts the reimbursement to reflect the actual price paid by doctors…
In 2023, companies billed Medicare for hundreds of thousands of urinary catheters that doctors never ordered. The next year, doctors collected billions from the government for pricey bandages that were sometimes unneeded. Medicare waste has wide-reaching consequences. Even if patients do not pay the bills themselves, more spending by the government insurance program can increase…
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity TV doctor, 53-45 and mostly along party lines to lead Medicare and Medicaid, which insure nearly half of all Americans. The future of both programs is the subject of fierce debate: Republicans are contemplating significant cuts to Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans….
It’s not just the high price of eggs or the rising cost of housing that is contributing to Americans’ unhappiness over the cost of living. Health care remains stubbornly unaffordable for millions of people, according to a new survey released Wednesday that underscores the struggle many people have in paying for a doctor’s visit or…
It’s easy to make a medical case for blockbuster weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, which have been shown to prevent heart attacks and strokes and save lives. But for the employers and government programs being asked to pay for the medications, the financial case for them is less clear. Are the drugs’ benefits…
As Congressional Republicans weigh major cuts to Medicaid, most voters do not want to see the public health plan’s funding dialed back, according to a poll released Friday by KFF, a nonpartisan health research firm. Just 17 percent of respondents said they supported cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program that covers more than…
In 2018, Democrats won back the House, flipping 41 seats including in conservative-leaning places like the suburbs of Utah and Oklahoma by focusing narrowly on a single issue: Republican efforts to overturn a popular health care program, the Affordable Care Act. Now, as Republicans push a budget resolution through Congress that will almost certainly require…
House Republicans hunting for ways to pay for President Trump’s tax cuts have called for cutting the federal government’s share of Medicaid spending, including a proposal that would effectively gut the Affordable Care Act’s 2014 expansion of the program. Cutting Medicaid spending, which is central to the budget bill that House Republicans may bring to…
Legal warnings posted on the door of a private, for-profit hospital in eastern China tracked its descent into financial failure. Huiren Hospital in the city of Suqian was warned for failing to pay employees. Four months later, a judicial summons said it still had not paid back wages. Finally, in September a paper taped across…
Since 2023, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor nominated by President Trump to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has been a high-priced pitchman for iHerb, a California supplement retailer. He has aggressively promoted iHerb products on social media, recommending supplements that he says will stimulate hair growth and provide smoother skin. Olive…
