Centene Agrees to $215 Million Settlement With California for Alleged Medicaid Overbilling

Centene Corp. has agreed to pay more than $215 million to California over allegations it overcharged the state for pharmacy services — the biggest payout to date by the nation’s largest Medicaid insurer over its drug pricing practices. The agreement announced Wednesday makes California at least the 17th state to settle pharmacy billing claims totaling […]

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Health Policies Were a Prominent Theme in Biden’s State of the Union Speech

President Joe Biden on Tuesday delivered his State of the Union address to a politically divided Congress for the first time, calling for permanent fixes on policy priorities like unaffordable health care costs. In one marked difference from his earlier speeches, attendance in the House chamber was at capacity with no covid-19 limitations in effect. […]

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‘We Ain’t Gonna Get It’: Why Bernie Sanders Says His ‘Medicare for All’ Dream Must Wait

After railing at the injustices of U.S. health care for decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders in January became the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. The job gives the health care industry’s biggest Washington nemesis an unprecedented opportunity to shape health care reform in Congress. But the sort of radical changes […]

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More Young Colorado Children Are Consuming Marijuana Despite Efforts to Stop Them

The number of children — especially very young ones — ingesting marijuana is rising in Colorado despite regulations meant to keep edibles out of kids’ hands, and state leaders said they have no plans to revisit those rules this year. The number of reports the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety office received of kids […]

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The Pill Club Reaches $18.3 Million Medicaid Fraud Settlement With California

The Pill Club, an online women’s pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state’s Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn’t want them.  Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the agreement Tuesday, a […]

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A Secret Weapon in Preventing the Next Pandemic: Fruit Bats

Jim Robbins More than four dozen Jamaican fruit bats destined for a lab in Bozeman, Montana, are set to become part of an experiment with an ambitious goal: predicting the next global pandemic. Bats worldwide are primary vectors for virus transmission from animals to humans. Those viruses often are harmless to bats but can be […]

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Decisions by CVS and Optum Panicked Thousands of Their Sickest Patients

NEW YORK — The fear started when a few patients saw their nurses and dietitians posting job searches on LinkedIn. Word spread to Facebook groups, and patients started calling Coram CVS, a major U.S. supplier of the compounded IV nutrients on which they rely for survival. To their dismay, CVS Health confirmed the rumors on […]

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Why Two States Remain Holdouts on Distracted Driving Laws

Max Herrick pulled over on the interstate near Harrisonville, Missouri, on a spring night in 2020 to offer antifreeze to a woman whose car had overheated. He had lost a grandson to an overdose just hours before, but aiding stranded motorists was second nature to the 73-year-old retired school custodian, who remembered thousands of students’ […]

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A Technicality Could Keep RSV Shots From Kids in Need

After more than five decades of trying, the drug industry is on the verge of providing effective immunizations against the respiratory syncytial virus, which has put an estimated 90,000 U.S. infants and small children in the hospital since the start of October. But only one of the shots is designed to be given to babies, […]

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As Long-Term Care Staffing Crisis Worsens, Immigrants Can Bridge the Gaps

When Margarette Nerette arrived in the United States from Haiti, she sought safety and a new start. The former human rights activist feared for her life in the political turmoil following the military coup that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991. Leaving her two small children with her sister in Port-au-Prince, Nerette, then 29, came […]

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