Colleen DeGuzman To dodge hefty costs for eyewear, California’s health insurance program for low-income people, Medi-Cal, has an innovative strategy: It contracts exclusively with the state’s prisons, and inmates make glasses for its beneficiaries. But the partnership that began more than 30 years ago has fractured. Medi-Cal enrollees, many of whom are children, and their eye care providers say that […]
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is developing a cell therapy for type 1 diabetes that replaces the insulin-producing cells lost to the chronic condition. In paying $320 million to acquire ViaCyte, Vertex is getting its hands on the company that was the first to demonstrate this feat in clinical testing. Boston-based Vertex framed the acquisition agreement announced Monday as complementary to its […]
Through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say that surgical and chronic wound care became a challenge, as many patients recovered at home and received care through virtual visits. A demand for wound care technology that is more accurate and less invasive is a response to both the rise in telehealth and the strain on clinical resources, says Jon […]
For the first time, a pharmaceutical company has asked for permission to sell a birth control pill over the counter in the U.S. HRA Pharma’s application on Monday sets up a high-stakes decision for health regulators amid legal and political battles over women’s reproductive health. The company says the timing was unrelated to the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe […]
Medicaid is an important source of health and long-term care coverage for seniors and people with disabilities. The Medicaid pathways in which eligibility is based on old age or disability are known as “non-MAGI” pathways because they do not use the Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) financial methodology that applies to pathways for pregnant people, parents, and children with low […]
Dive Brief: The House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into how companies are handling sensitive health data in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The committee sent letters to five data broker companies and five personal health apps asking for information regarding how they store and manage user data, along with whether they […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday received an application for the first over-the counter birth control pill. The move came as the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning of Roe v. Wade is heightening attention on contraceptive access. The application for a daily birth control pill available without a prescription comes from the drug company HRA Pharma. The […]
A federal court’s ruling that a Chicago hospital can sue the state Medicaid agency for allegedly failing to ensure proper payment from private insurers sets the stage for a deluge of similar suits from providers—if the nation’s highest court preserves Medicaid participants’ right to sue. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Tuesday ruled that St. Anthony […]
The healthcare ecosystem – including healthcare providers, biopharma, payers, along with both federal and state government – are moving toward the shared goal of delivering higher quality of patient care, more economically. This shift toward value-based care has fundamentally changed the way that healthcare is delivered in the United States. Instead of disconnected, dysfunctional, disparate systems, healthcare stakeholders are being driven […]
A year after health officials issued a record number of alerts for high ozone levels on Colorado’s Front Range, federal and state officials are trying to rein in the gas that can make outdoor activities a health risk. But new Colorado laws aimed at improving air quality along that urban corridor east of the Rocky Mountains aren’t expected to do […]