Medicare

A Trump administration rule mandating that hospitals disclose true prices on their websites took effect this year. But compliance is spotty and even when figures are public, they are hard to find and understand.

Medicaid, once considered the ugly duckling compared with the politically powerful and popular Medicare program, now covers nearly one in four Americans.

Aduhelm was recently approved by the FDA and quickly sparked controversy over its price and questionable benefits.

Officials said the program will pay roughly $35 more per dose when enrollees are vaccinated at home. For a two-shot regimen that means Medicare will pay $150, or about $70 more than currently.

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, says she'll focus her time in charge on getting more Americans insured.

In the latest sign that the idea is catching on, two big players — Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic — announced plans to collectively invest into a company that provides such services to expand programs.

Officials hope that disclosure will provide an incentive to keep giving shots even as the worst ravages of the pandemic have eased.

The U.S. House is considering a bill to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower costs for prescription drugs like insulin, a life-saving diabetes medicine that can cost families thousands of dollars a year.

The measure would require the Medicaid program to pay Medicare deductibles and cost sharing for non-emergency transportation services.

Those hospitals, which include several in Florida and some of the nation’s marquee medical centers, will lose 1% of their Medicare payments over 12 months.