Mary K. Caffrey

Proposed mergers of Aetna and Humana, and Anthem and Cigna, raise questions of whether consumers will continue to see competition in health insurance markets.

Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law that created Medicare and Medicaid, setting in motion not only the greatest change in healthcare in the nation's history at that point, but also a lasting change for society.

Earnings calls over the past 2 days for Express Scripts and Sanofi offered starkly different views of pricing for the first PCSK9 inhibitor to reach the US market.

Middle-age men especially were more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes if they suffered from erectile dysfunction, according to the study.

A quirk in Alaska law allowed Governor Bill Walker to move ahead without support from the legislature.

The combination involves long-acting insulin and a GLP-1 receptor agonist.

A review published before FDA's vote on alirocumab outlines how editorials in 2 major journals were reflected in subsequent votes by advisory panels.

From 2015 AACC: Fingernail clippings could replace blood draws for diabetes tests, and a new biomarker could speed up tests for gestational diabetes.

Officials say the number of enrollees and their relative good health made it possible to negotiate lower rate increases. However, premium increases are higher in Northern California, where there is less competition.

The need for spirometry before physicians can write an Afrezza prescription has been cited by analysts as an impediment to broader use of the inhaled insulin.

Health plans and pharmacy benefits managers are expected to scrutinize the FDA approval to ensure that only those patients who truly need the drug get it.Drugmakers say discounts will cause the price to fall below the $14,600 annual wholesale price listed.

The HHS Secretary told the National Governors Association that she needed their help in fighting substance abuse and in moving the healthcare system from a volume-based to a value-based system.

The Sanofi and Regeneron therapy, to be marketed as Praluent, was among the most-anticipated FDA approvals of the year. Late-day reports put pricing at $40 a day wholesale, well above estimates, although insurers will seek discounts.

The proposal marks the latest attempt to give consumers more information about the foods they consume.

Recent surveys have found that public sentiment on drug costs runs high and crosses the political divide. A move this week by the nation's leading oncologists to rein in therapy pricing may be a sign that this is the breakthrough issue of the presidential campaign.

The study has policy implications since Americans 65 and older are eligible for Medicare, and trustees reported this week that the hospital fund will only be solvent until 2030.

Some safety-net hospitals are seeing the best bottom lines in years. But for those in states that refused to expand Medicaid, little has changed.

Since the adoption of the Affordable Care Act, CMS has removed 28,000 questionable providers from Medicare. But the Government Accountability Office found more needs to be done to verify addresses and weed out those who have lost their licenses.

The results will not wipe out a recent $2.37 billion settlement reached in about 9000 bladder cancer claims involving the drug.

The new law was part of a 21-bill package to fight one of the nation's highest rates of opioid and heroin abuse.

In a pattern repeated among those who gained insurance on the Marketplace exchanges, it's clear the uninsured had more pent-up medical needs than policymakers realized.

Nearly 50 years after President Johnson signed the law that created them, Medicare and Medicaid have become part of the fabric of the US healthcare system. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds little support for proposals to alter the basic structure of the programs.

The Government Accountability Office received notices of inconsistent information, but it wasn't enough for CMS to cancel coverage for the phony beneficiaries. A key flaw revealed is the ability of phony applicants to use the telephone to bypass online controls.

Advocates for healthy eating say food industry lobbyists are using the political process to interfere in the scientific process.

Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt says the Fraud Prevention System has yielded a 10-to-1 return for taxpayers

The newly insured came to Medicaid with medical issues that had gone unaddressed for years. The same problem has been cited by insurers who have asked for large rate increases for 2016 for plans on the exchanges.

The rule for restaurants and other food retailers is delayed until December 2016 to allow more discussions on how it will apply in many specific situations. Food labeling with calorie counts is mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

A study of Kaiser Permanente cancer patients found that two-thirds of teen and young adult patients received aggressive care at the end of life. The special issue on the topic comes as CMS proposes paying doctors or nurses to discuss advanced care planning.

The study found that 45% of those who used heroin were addicted to opioid prescription drugs. CDC cites several studies showing clear connections between the rise of opioid abuse and heroin use and deaths, especially since 2010.