Administration Expands Medicaid To Cover Former Prisoners In Halfway Houses
People who are still incarcerated are not eligible for the program, but there had been questions previously about their eligibility once they moved to a halfway home. The administration also wants correction departments to begin signing up prisoners before they are released to help ease the transition.
The Wall Street Journal:
Obama Administration Takes Steps To Help Former Prisoners Get Medicaid
The Obama administration is taking steps to ensure that the health law’s expansion of Medicaid also includes a smoother path for former prisoners to enroll in the program. Community activists have long seen the law’s expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, as an opportunity to secure health care for people leaving prison, where they do receive treatment. It could also prevent them from sharp relapses that could result in costly emergency room admissions. Ex-inmates often have particular needs for HIV, mental health and substance abuse treatment, activists and federal officials agree. (Radnofsky, 4/28)
In other national health care news —
Modern Healthcare:
Senators Want To Halt Change To Medicare Part B Drug Pay
Senate Finance Committee members from both parties told the CMS on Thursday not to go forward with a Medicare Part B initiative to change how hospitals and doctors are reimbursed for outpatient drugs. The CMS announced the mandatory change last month to criticism from some doctors and insurers as well as the pharmaceutical lobby. The five-year pilot program borne out of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation would, starting this year, decrease the percentage of a drug's average sales price paid to providers from 6% to 2.5% while adding a flat payment of $16.80 per drug a day. (Muchmore, 4/28)
The New York Times:
Health Care Companies See Scale As The Only Way To Compete
A spate of deals on Thursday showed that health care companies are convinced, regardless of tax benefits, that bigger is not only better, it is necessary. The whole industry seems to be reading from the same playbook: Pair up with a company that makes the same product to become a leading provider, and thus gain more clout to negotiate business with hospitals and health insurers. (Picker, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Drugmakers Place Big Bets On Cancer Medicines
Despite a growing outcry over the rising cost of cancer treatments, drugmakers are placing multibillion-dollar bets on new medicines they expect will command premium prices and generate big sales. ... The flurry of deal activity surrounding cancer drugs comes as politicians, doctors and health-insurance companies blast the pharmaceutical industry for its pricing—particularly for new cancer treatments with monthly costs that commonly exceed $10,000 a patient. (Loftus, Bisserbe and Kostov, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Brain Damage In Zika Babies Is Far Worse Than Doctors Expected
The scale and severity of prenatal damage by the Zika virus are far worse than past birth defects associated with microcephaly, a condition characterized by a small head and brain abnormalities. Scans, imaging and autopsies show that Zika eats away at the fetal brain. It shrinks or destroys lobes that control thought, vision and other basic functions. It prevents parts of the brain not yet formed from developing. “These aren’t just microcephaly, like a slightly small head. The brain structure is very abnormal,” said Jeanne Sheffield, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who has been counseling pregnant women about microcephaly for two decades. (Magalhaes and McKay, 4/28)