Going forward, health insurers will need to be more transparent and accountable than ever before when they seek large premium rate increases. This is because, as of today, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that insurers asking for premium increases o

Last week’s announcement by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation – a.k.a. The Innovation Center – about the launch of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative offers hope in the battle against out-of-control health care costs. Docto

For students heading to college, fall is a season full of the excitement and distraction of a new environment, new friends and new classes. With all of the activity, it can be easy to let signing up for health care slip through the cracks. However, health

A Team Approach to Care As policymakers across the country look to balance their budgets, some are turning to Medicaid, recycling the same harmful policies they’ve used year-after-year: eliminating coverage for vulnerable Americans, restricting critical

New federal conflict rules released this week confirmed rumors that the National Institutes of Health had stepped back from stronger public transparency for biomedical researchers who accept industry support. The updates to the rule, last established in 1

Inside National Health Reform by John McDonough is out on bookstore shelves. John, a longtime collaborator in efforts to improve health care in Massachusetts, brings his years as an organizer, legislator, professor, and head of Health Care For All (Massac

We got some good news last week from the Administration – new rules for individual and group health plans that require them to disclose critical information about their benefits and out-of-pocket costs. For many of us, this is sort of “ho-hum” news becaus

The FDA and generic drug makers have reached a deal that would raise nearly $300 million in annual fees to inspect foreign API makers and bring monitoring in line with domestic inspection rates. According to the New York Times, the agreement awaits some f

Mandatory Medicaid coverage for former foster care youth who have aged out of the foster care system but are in care as of their eighteenth birthday—an important provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that isn’t as widely known as it should be—is fina