Weekly Spotlight: Two Agencies Moved on 340B in One Week, and the Money Runs the Same Way
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) published a Federal Register notice on July 31 reviving the 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program for a January 1, 2027 launch. This is the second attempt. Litigation forced the agency to scrap its planned 2026 start.
The revived pilot is narrower than the first. It creates a voluntary pathway for qualifying manufacturers to deliver the 340B ceiling price through back-end rebates rather than upfront discounts. It covers only drugs with CMS-negotiated prices under the Inflation Reduction Act, roughly 25 potentially eligible products. HRSA moved forward despite covered entities’ formal attestations of substantial administrative burden. It dismissed their data privacy objections outright.
The hospital objection is about cash, not paperwork. An upfront discount reduces what a covered entity pays at purchase. A rebate returns money afterward, at the manufacturer’s processing pace, against data the manufacturer specifies. For safety-net hospitals on thin margins, that shift hits working capital even when the final dollar amount is identical. Hospital groups are pushing back on this second version, and the administration is revising the terms over their objections.
The legal backdrop explains why the pilot is the only vehicle. The D.C. Circuit ruled on July 21 that drugmakers cannot run alternative 340B rebate models without explicit approval from the HHS Secretary. Manufacturers who want rebates now need HRSA to sanction them. Pressure runs the other way too. A New Hampshire disproportionate share hospital is suing Eli Lilly over terminated 340B discounts after declining to submit claims data for every 340B-priced dispense. Lilly’s claims-data requirement exposes roughly 1,000 covered entities to suspended pricing. This is HRSA’s second try at instituting rebates after the first failed earlier this year, and HFMA has published guidance for hospitals preparing for heightened oversight. Hospitals remain angry.
Then the second agency. CMS proposed cutting Medicare reimbursement for 340B-acquired drugs in the outpatient prospective payment system rule, paired with an offsetting increase for other outpatient services. KFF’s analysis of CMS projections puts the net effect at a 5.8% revenue reduction for disproportionate share hospitals and a 7.4% increase for for-profit hospitals. That is a redistribution, not an economy measure. The dollars move from the hospitals carrying the most uncompensated care to the ones carrying the least.
Different agencies, different tracks, same institutions. Those institutions were not starting from strength. Thirty-nine percent of hospitals were already operating at a loss before any of this takes effect, and they are simultaneously absorbing the marketplace coverage losses now showing up in second-quarter earnings. Comment strategy on the outpatient rule and participation decisions on the HRSA pilot are both live, on separate clocks. ADAP Advocacy has separately argued 340B oversight should move from HRSA to CMS.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS Ends the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration
CMS said on July 28 it will end the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration at the close of 2026, and will not offer it in 2027. The agency said 2027 bid analysis shows insurers now have enough experience under the redesigned benefit; the administration argued the program benefited insurers more than enrollees. KFF puts the demonstration at $9.8 billion across 2025 and 2026, finds it worked as intended, and expects larger 2027 increases for some enrollees. Plan-specific premiums are not yet public, and increases stay capped at 6% under the Inflation Reduction Act. Democrats moved within hours to make it an affordability attack line, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling the decision “heartless, cruel, and completely by choice.” The premiums land immediately before the midterms.
Becker’s Hospital Review The New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Hill CMS’s Decision to End Temporary Subsidie Fierce Healthcare Healthcare Dive Inside Health Policy STAT healthexec.com The Hill
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2.3% Inpatient Increase and Joint Replacement Bundles Go Mandatory Nationwide
CMS finalized a 2.3% FY2027 base increase for inpatient and long-term care hospitals, slightly below the proposal. It also replaced the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model with CJR-X, Medicare’s first mandatory nationwide bundled payment program, and pushed back its start date. CMS finalized the expansion over hospital-group objections that the model exceeds its statutory authority, citing more than $100 million in savings from the original model between 2016 and 2024. Hospital groups called the 2.3% inadequate against a rising uninsured rate. CMS also finalized including Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in several hospital quality measures. Procedural volume paid fee-for-service is moving into bundles without an opt-out.
Modern Healthcare Fierce Healthcare Becker’s Hospital Review Inside Health Policy CMS News: CMS Announces Nationwide Expan Inside Health Policy Inside Health Policy
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Marketplace Rules in Litigation While Coverage Losses Hit Hospital Balance Sheets
HHS is appealing the decision that vacated provisions of the 2025 marketplace rule. CMS has told exchanges to stop denying subsidies over unreconciled prior-year filings. Twenty-two Democratic-run states sued over the payment and program integrity final rule. The operator evidence is moving faster than the litigation. Universal Health Services’ CFO told analysts on July 28 that exchange dropouts are becoming uninsured with essentially no commercial offset. Deaconess Health System sees Medicaid disenrollment in real-time data. The same subsidy expiration is lifting several insurers’ margins. Kennedy and Oz attribute the roughly 3 million enrollment drop, to about 19.2 million, to fraud enforcement rather than premiums. Analysts dispute that.
Becker’s Payer Inside Health Policy Modern Healthcare Becker’s Hospital Review The New York Times Becker’s Hospital Review Becker’s Hospital Review Kennedy, Oz Contend Fraud Crackdown, Not Healthcare Dive
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Medicaid Work Requirements Survive First Court Test as Notice Deadline Closes
A Massachusetts federal judge denied 25 states’ request on July 30 to pause parts of the CMS interim final rule, but expedited the case. A separate ruling declined to block the requirement that chronically ill enrollees prove they cannot work. States face an August 31 notice deadline and January 1 implementation. The operational risk sits in the “medically frail” exemption, where advocates warn documentation difficulty could cost millions their coverage. Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families and the National Association of Medicaid Directors both filed comments. NAMD filed for the state agencies that have to build the verification systems.
Inside Health Policy Politico STAT ccf.georgetown.edu NAMD Partner Newsletter: NAMD Comments t From Medicaid Financing to Accountable C
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CMS Reopens Physician Payment as Specialists Absorb the CY2027 Proposal
CMS issued a July 14 request for information on alternatives to fee-for-service physician payment. The notice observes that the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding system underpinning reimbursement is owned by the American Medical Association. The CY2027 fee schedule cuts specialty reimbursement while raising primary care visit pay, a budget-neutrality shift specialty societies are objecting to. Administrator Mehmet Oz said artificial intelligence implemented under the current billing system will be inflationary, and signaled changes that weight procedural value over volume. The American College of Cardiology released a calculator letting practices model the 2027 schedule against their own mix.
MedPage Today Modern Healthcare Inside Health Policy healthmanagement.com Cardiovascular Business
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CMS Marks a Year of the Health Tech Ecosystem With New Industry Pledges
CMS marked one year of its Health Tech Ecosystem initiative. HHS expanded it on July 28 with voluntary commitments covering price transparency, clinical trial matching, patient scheduling, population health exchange via bulk Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), and pharmacy interoperability. Commentary notes the framework is voluntary but still assumes a baseline of technical capability, which could leave smaller organizations out.
STAT Becker’s Hospital Review medcitynews.com
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Medicare Advantage Reaches 57% of Enrollment by 2036, CBO Projects
The Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare Advantage will account for 57% of Medicare enrollment by 2036, a baseline figure for MA payment and fiscal policy debates. Separately, an industry survey finds MA enrollees report lower average out-of-pocket costs than traditional Medicare enrollees at similar satisfaction levels. Note the sponsorship when weighing the second finding.
Becker’s Payer Fierce Healthcare
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Arbitration Volumes Climb and Providers Keep Winning
Providers prevailed in 85% of the 1.15 million No Surprises Act independent dispute resolution cases decided in the second half of 2025, per new federal data. Payer CEOs are escalating public criticism of the process, citing rising volumes and costs.
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Payment and Pricing Items Worth Tracking
Peterson Center on Healthcare research finds standardized, clinically aligned outcome measures are essential to the voluntary ACCESS model, which pays higher traditional Medicare reimbursement for technology-driven care that improves outcomes and lowers cost. Public Citizen is separately pressing Medicare to negotiate prices for newly approved drugs at or shortly after launch. It argues manufacturers hold prices high in the years before products become eligible for Inflation Reduction Act negotiation.
- Report: Standardized Outcome Measures Key To ACCESS Model Success
- Consumer Group Urges Medicare To Negotiate Drug Prices At Launch
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CMS Moves Again on Medicaid Provider Taxes, Beyond What H.R. 1 Requires
CMS issued a proposed rule on July 21 implementing two of H.R. 1’s restrictions on state Medicaid provider taxes. Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families reads the rule as again going beyond the statute in restricting state financing. Provider taxes fund the state share of Medicaid in nearly every state, so the reach extends to the supplemental payments hospitals draw from them.
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RAPID Coverage Pathway for Breakthrough Devices Reaches the Budget Office
A notice establishing the RAPID Medicare coverage pathway for FDA breakthrough devices arrived at the White House Office of Management and Budget last week. The administration says the route will be broader than existing programs. For device sponsors this is the coverage-side counterpart to breakthrough designation, and the OMB arrival is the first firm signal of timing.
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TEAM Episode Model Projected to Cost Participating Hospitals Millions in Year One
The mandatory TEAM episode model is likely to cost most of its 721 participating hospitals millions of dollars in the first year, according to a new analysis. Participants take on care coordination for five surgical episode types in original Medicare. Read alongside the nationwide CJR-X expansion, the two rules describe the same direction of travel for surgical and procedural payment.
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Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
FDA Sets FY2027 Device User Fees, and Loads the Increase Onto Registration
FDA published fiscal 2027 medical device user fee rates on July 30 under the Medical Device User Fee Amendments of 2022 (MDUFA V). They apply from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. A premarket application costs $636,732, a 510(k) costs $28,653, and a De Novo classification request costs $191,020. Small businesses pay 25% of those rates. The notable move is where the increase landed. FDA met its FY2025 hiring threshold and its performance goals, which triggered a $63,542,885 performance improvement adjustment. The agency recovered that entire amount by raising establishment registration fees alone. Registration rose from an inflation-adjusted $10,277 to $13,785, against a statutory base of $8,465. Every registered establishment pays it whether or not it submits anything that year, and there is no small business rate. FY2027 is the last year MDUFA V specifies base fees. Firms holding FY2026 small business status must requalify before it expires September 30, 2026.
federalregister.gov Inside Health Policy raps.org FDA sets user fees for fiscal year 2027 MDUFA Small Business Determination Updat
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FDA’s Artificial Intelligence Agenda Meets Its Own Turnover
High-level turnover at FDA has left the pace of the agency-wide artificial intelligence strategy uncertain. The submissions are not waiting. FDA authorized the first artificial intelligence software of its kind in cardiac imaging, technology clinicians expect could change how cardiovascular risk is evaluated. Aidoc is bringing a generative AI system that interprets images and drafts radiology reports to the agency as a test case. Sponsors are arriving with novel submissions at the moment the review policy behind them is least settled.
MedTech Dive Cardiovascular Business MedTech Dive
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FDA Reorganization Ends Inspector Specialization
FDA will consolidate administrative staff and end the specialization of its inspections workforce. The notice of planned reorganization went to the Federal Register on July 29. The published Statement of Organization, Functions, and Delegations of Authority centralizes agency functions to reduce redundancies. Generalist inspectors covering device establishments changes the inspection model, not only the org chart.
Inside Health Policy federalregister.gov
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Rare Disease Review Tools Draw Pressure From Both Directions
A legislative commission advising Congress on biotechnology and national security is urging FDA and Congress to advance a national strategy for rare disease cures. An FDA advisory panel is meanwhile weighing a gene therapy at the center of disputes over the agency’s rare disease regulatory philosophy. In STAT, a patient with limb girdle muscular dystrophy argues FDA is misapplying accelerated and rare-disease review tools, delaying therapies for conditions where lost function does not return.
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WHO Publishes First List of Device Regulators Eligible for Listed Authority Status
The World Health Organization announced its first global list of medical device regulators eligible for listed authority standing. The interim list names 12 regulators eligible for transitional status. Listed authority standing is how other countries rely on a peer regulator’s decisions, so the list shapes reliance pathways for device market access outside the United States.
raps.org WHO releases list of device regulators e
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Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
AHRQ Is Effectively Halted and the Cancelled-Grant Tally Keeps Rising
HHS has stopped most Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) activity. A July 15 letter told researchers at least 104 grants are being terminated, many focused on patient safety. An AcademyHealth tracker counts more than 100 grants worth over $250 million cancelled, with totals expected to climb. A state-by-state tally puts it at $131 million. AHRQ has funded quality and safety research for 27 years, which is the evidence base hospitals cite in their own quality programs. Elsewhere in the pipeline, National Cancer Institute-designated centers report money arriving substantially more slowly, and OMB’s proposed grantmaking rule adds a pre-issuance review step that researchers warn would destabilize NIH-funded work.
Trump Has Quietly Throttled An Agency De MedPage Today Becker’s Hospital Review MedPage Today The Hill
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Trump Presses Kennedy to Cut the Childhood Vaccine Schedule Further
The Wall Street Journal reports President Trump is pressing Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to scale back the recommended childhood immunization schedule. Any change flows through the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which is what makes it a coverage question. ACIP recommendations determine which vaccines insurers must cover without cost sharing. Pediatricians and state health officials are meanwhile issuing their own guidance rather than following CDC recommendations. Payers will have to resolve that divergence one plan at a time.
The Wall Street Journal Becker’s Payer NPR
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State Department Releases the $600M Gavi Appropriation Kennedy Had Held
The State Department will release $600 million Congress appropriated for Gavi, the global childhood immunization partnership. Secretary Kennedy had held the funds for months over Gavi’s use of thimerosal-containing vaccines. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins confirmed the release, and senators who pressed for it are claiming a win. The administration says it secured reforms. Donor-government HIV funding moved the other way, falling $2.1 billion, or 25%, in 2025 to $6.2 billion on U.S. declines. KFF and UNAIDS call it the largest annual drop since HIV scale-up began.
Inside Health Policy The Hill Politico Politico Donor Government Funding for HIV Drops b
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HHS Ends Federal Funding for Dangerous Gain-of-Function Research
HHS prohibited federal funding for what it calls dangerous gain-of-function research and for international research lacking adequate oversight. The new Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research implements a Trump executive order and applies to both U.S. and foreign projects. It follows NIH termination of more than 2,500 grants and at least $3.2 billion between March and June 2025, some since reversed by court order.
Inside Health Policy Becker’s Hospital Review CIDRAP
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DOJ Opinion Puts Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services at Risk
A June Justice Department legal opinion holds that federal disability rights law does not require states to fund home- and community-based services. The reading puts Medicaid-covered in-home supports at risk in any state that chooses to scale them back. People with disabilities and their advocates are treating it as the predicate for service cuts.
People With Disabilities Fear Service Cu
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Census Privacy Change Threatens the Data Behind Coverage Research
Commerce Department Administrative Order 216-26 took effect immediately on June 4, 2026, issued without notice and comment. It bans noise-infusion privacy methods across Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis data products. Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families warns this threatens the federal data underpinning Medicaid, CHIP and coverage research. Separately, the Government Accountability Office found inconsistent communication among HHS, USDA and other agencies is hampering emerging disease response. Both items sit in the measurement layer rather than the policy layer, which is why they are easy to miss and hard to reverse.
ccf.georgetown.edu Inside Health Policy
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Program and Personnel Notes Across the Department
HRSA issued an OPTN Modernization update on governance reform, technology infrastructure and oversight in the organ transplant system. Insurers and medical societies signed behavioral health best-practice pledges at an HHS roundtable while a key mental health parity law remains in limbo. SAMHSA released the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, showing continued improvement in adolescent substance use, depressive episodes and suicidal ideation. The survey’s future was uncertain after its entire 17-member team was laid off last year. HRSA’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies program improved prenatal and postpartum access for more than 8,600 women in Minnesota, Missouri and West Virginia. The administration announced a $47 million pilot funding hybrid university-industry PhD training. And Bloomberg reports Mehmet Oz is viewed inside the administration as Kennedy’s heir apparent.
- Modernizing the Transplant System Through Safety and Transparency
- Health Leaders Pledge Greater Support For Behavioral Health
- Federal Survey Shows Promising Youth Mental Health Trends
- Federal rural maternal health program logs care gains for mothers, infants: 6 details
- $47 Million Program Offers Hybrid University-Industry Ph.D. Training
- At Trump’s HHS, Mehmet Oz Seen as Heir Apparent to RFK Jr. as Health Secretary
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Heard on the Hill
Senate HELP Advances Schwartz for CDC and Kaufman for ASPR
Senate HELP voted July 30 to advance Erica Schwartz as CDC director, 12-10, and Sean Kaufman as ASPR administrator, 12-11, alongside Keith Sonderling for a Labor Department post. Chair Bill Cassidy backed both health nominees despite stating major reservations about Kaufman. Schwartz drew rare Democratic support. Both go to the full Senate. The votes followed a postponement the prior week.
Inside Health Policy The Hill STAT Inside Health Policy Senate committee approves CDC director n
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Stopgap Deal Runs Past the Midterms, With a Grant-Politicization Block
Senate leaders released a short-term funding bill keeping federal agencies open past the midterms into early December, with a vote expected before the August recess. The bipartisan text would also block the White House proposal giving political appointees control over federal research grant awards. The underlying appropriations track is tighter. CBPP finds House Republican FY2027 bills would cut non-defense funding 6.0% below 2026 levels after inflation, the lowest in years. That is the track setting NIH, CDC and FDA budgets.
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Price Transparency Bills Advance and the Hospital Lobby Objects
The American Hospital Association raised concerns with the bipartisan Senate price transparency bill advanced by the health committee. AHA objects specifically to posting prices for all services and to eliminating price-estimator tools for the shoppable-services requirement. Patient advocates are pushing for passage, citing a survey finding 94% of Americans want action on affordability. Sen. John Hickenlooper is framing transparency as the first step toward universal coverage, arguing consumers cannot get a usable price for childbirth at major systems.
Inside Health Policy Inside Health Policy coloradosun.com
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Senate Democrats Open a Public Option Track
Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden and 16 Democrats issued a request for input on establishing a federal public coverage option, reversing Trump-era rulemaking and H.R. 1 policies, reforming prior authorization and streamlining enrollment, with universal coverage as the stated goal. Sen. Andy Kim separately introduced the MediKids Act (S. 5037), which would guarantee coverage for every child and young adult. These are minority-party markers, not moving legislation. They define the coverage platform heading into the midterms.
Inside Health Policy Becker’s Payer ccf.georgetown.edu
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CBO Answers on IRA Costs, Ways and Means Puts $700B on It
The Congressional Budget Office responded on July 29 to a May 20 letter from Rep. Brett Guthrie and other congressional leaders on unbudgeted Inflation Reduction Act costs and spending revisions. House Ways and Means Republicans said the response confirms the IRA raised costs for seniors and taxpayers by $700 billion. That figure and characterization are the committee majority’s, not CBO’s framing.
Congressional Leaders Get Answers from C waysandmeans.house.gov
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HELP Unanimously Passes Cassidy Health Data Privacy Bill
The Senate HELP Committee unanimously passed Chair Cassidy’s health data privacy bill on July 30. It would require health technologies outside HIPAA’s scope to disclose how consumer information is collected and shared, with the Federal Trade Commission as primary enforcer. Unanimous passage is the notable part. Digital health tools, remote monitoring platforms and device-adjacent software sit squarely in the gap this bill addresses.
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Senate Budget Opens a Hearing on Medicaid Financing and H.R. 1 Impacts
Senate Budget Committee Chair Ron Johnson will hold his first hearing next week on Medicaid fraud and on financing mechanisms such as provider taxes, along with the impacts of Medicaid policies enacted in H.R. 1. The hearing lands while the CMS provider-tax proposed rule is open and the work requirements litigation is being expedited.
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Lawmakers Agree the Surprise-Billing Fix Is Broken and Cannot Agree How to Fix It
Lawmakers across both parties agree the No Surprises Act dispute-resolution process is flawed. Entrenched hostility between insurers and doctors is stalling any congressional repair. Providers won 85% of arbitration cases in the second half of 2025, which is the number driving payer pressure for a rewrite.
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Notable Notes
TAVR Evidence Builds on Both Ends of the Severity Curve
A new PARTNER 3 analysis finds low-risk patients have comparable outcomes after transcatheter and surgical aortic valve replacement, with TAVR showing early advantages. Investigators stress the value of detecting even small differences between the two approaches. At the other end of the curve, a cost-effectiveness analysis projects that early transcatheter aortic valve implantation in asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis lowers total healthcare costs and improves outcomes versus watchful waiting. Two adjacent signals. Emerging data suggest acute valvular syndromes may be more common than the gradual-progression model implies. And researchers report the De Ritis enzyme ratio may help predict short-term stroke and atrial fibrillation risk after TAVR.
Cardiovascular Business medscape.com Early TAVI may improve outcomes, reduce medscape.com Cardiovascular Business
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Abbott Opens Real-World TriClip Study as Tricuspid Gets Crowded
Abbott launched a real-world post-market study of its TriClip transcatheter edge-to-edge repair system in roughly 1,000 patients with tricuspid regurgitation, tracked over five years. The device is already FDA-approved and Medicare-covered. The study lands as Edwards Lifesciences expands in the same segment. Post-market evidence generation is how appropriate-use criteria and coverage boundaries get set after approval, which makes the study design as consequential as the trial that won the approval.
MedTech Dive Cardiovascular Business Study to assess Abbott device for leaky
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Cardiac Care Moves Outpatient and the Guardrails Are Being Written
Migration of cardiac procedures, particularly electrophysiology, from hospitals into ambulatory surgical centers is one of the largest site-of-service shifts in cardiology. Medical societies are watching the quality and safety guardrails closely. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons issued a new guideline on preventing atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery, headlined by a Class I recommendation for prophylactic amiodarone. The American Heart Association’s heart failure registry marks 20 years with more than 1.6 million records from over 800 hospitals. Leapfrog expanded public reporting to more than 3,900 ambulatory surgery centers in its 2026 ratings.
Cardiovascular Business Cardiovascular Business Cardiovascular Business Fierce Healthcare
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Medtech Strategy: Edwards, Medtronic and Stryker Target Care Gaps
Modern Healthcare reports on strategies from Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, Stryker, Siemens Healthineers’ Varian and Olympus aimed at closing diagnosis delays and treatment gaps. This is trade feature framing rather than a policy action. The undertreatment argument is the one these manufacturers carry into coverage discussions.
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Private Equity Drained $658M From Safety-Net Hospitals in Three States
A Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms case study alleges Leonard Green & Partners and Prospect Medical Holdings extracted $658 million from safety-net hospitals in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Prospect then filed for Chapter 11. Separately, Children’s National president and CEO Michelle Riley-Brown says federal policy decisions are reshaping care for children’s hospitals, and that advocacy now consumes a growing share of her role.
Becker’s Hospital Review Becker’s Hospital Review
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Tariffs, Open Payments and Drug Pricing Litigation
Becker’s published a status check on the shifting 2026 tariff landscape for healthcare, including a Supreme Court ruling and new duties on branded drugs, among them a 100% tariff. New analysis of CMS Open Payments data finds manufacturers reported $2.6 billion in payments to physicians last year, with thousands of records failing to identify the affiliated product. Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board plans to appeal a ruling that blocked it from setting an upper payment limit for Enbrel at the CMS-negotiated maximum fair price.
Becker’s Hospital Review medscape.com Inside Health Policy
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Research Workforce Rules Tighten Around International Collaboration
The Department of Homeland Security is eliminating the duration-of-status policy that let international students remain in the United States for as long as their program takes, replacing it with fixed visa time limits. STAT reports the change could affect the research pipeline. ProPublica separately reports a new rule that could exclude U.S. scientists from major international research collaborations. Multi-center device and outcomes trials depend on exactly these collaborations.
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Also Worth Noting
Industry experts warn the Medicare hospice fraud crisis and resulting enforcement scrutiny are damaging the benefit’s reputation and could deter eligible patients from electing hospice. Rollout of a long-acting HIV prevention drug has hit access and distribution barriers. And the Pentagon will pay civilian ambulance services to carry blood under a novel program, extending federal payment into prehospital transfusion.
- Hospice’s Bad Reputation Amid Fraud Crisis Will Hurt Patients, Industry Experts Warn
- This drug could help end the HIV epidemic. Its rollout has hit speed bumps
- In Novel Program, the Pentagon Will Pay Civilian Ambulances for Blood – Business Insider
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