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  1. 10 things to know about HHS Secretary-designate Tom Price

    Here is everything physicians need to know about the Republican representative from Georgia.

    http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/10-things-know-about-hhs-secretary-designate-tom-price?GUID=E5D1C438-A423-4146-A0D3-9E314F5871B2&rememberme=1&ts=30112016

    Read the facts.

    Scott

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  2. MORE: Price Confirmed as HHS Secretary

    Newly elected HHS Secretary Tom Price likely will spend his first few days focusing on efforts to stabilize the individual health insurance market as Republicans work to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Following the pattern of strictly party-line votes on two previous nominees — Attorney General-designate Sen. Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos for Education secretary — the former congressman from Georgia was approved early Friday on a 52-47 vote.

    Price has to figure out how to keep insurers in the market for 2018 to avoid a meltdown that could leave 20 million people without coverage. Insurance industry leaders say they need greater certainty about market rules before they decide this spring whether to offer plans and how to price them.

    Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is counting on the staunchly conservative former orthopedic surgeon to lead the effort to draft an ACA replacement plan, while also taking steps to dismantle the law through administrative measures.

    Source: Virgil Dickson and Harris Meyer
    Modern Healthcare
    [2/10/17]

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  3. Price Backs Balance Billing for Medicare Patients

    HHS Secretary Tom Price is backing legislation that will allow physicians to bill seniors for charges that are more than the rates approved by Medicare. He claims the move would draw more physicians to enroll in the program. In correspondence between Price and the Senate Finance Committee provided exclusively to Modern Healthcare, Price said he supports enacting such a law, which several physician groups said could backfire.

    Current law does not allow physicians to bill patients more than the Medicare payment rate for any service. But in response to a query from Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) during his confirmation process, Price said he favored changing the law to let doctors recoup unreimbursed Medicare costs, a practice known as balance billing. Price, a retired orthopedic surgeon, said balance billing would entice more providers to work with Medicare beneficiaries. Patients typically get “surprise” bills when a physician practice operating inside a hospital isn’t part of an insurer’s network. It has been happening more frequently in recent years, as insurers select fewer providers for their networks to keep premiums down. Several states have passed measures to prevent the practice.

    Source: Virgil Dickson, Modern Healthcare [3/9/17]

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  4. Fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Said to Have Been Investigating HHS Secretary Tom Price

    Trump’s head of the Department of Health and Human Services traded stocks of health-related companies while working on legislation affecting the firms.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/preet-bharara-fired-investigating-tom-price-hhs-stock-trading?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

    A source says Bharara was overseeing an investigation. The White House didn’t immediately comment.

    Robert Faturechi

    via Ann Miller RN MHA

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  5. Tom Price Bought Drug Stocks. Then He Pushed Pharma’s Agenda in Australia

    Before he was named Trump’s health secretary, Price took a congressional trip to Australia and pressed officials to extend protections for drug companies in an international trade agreement.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/tom-price-bought-drug-stocks-then-he-pushed-pharma-agenda-in-australia?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

    Connoly

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  6. My two cents on Price,

    You’re FIRED!

    Fred

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  7. Tom – We Hardly Knew Ye!

    Tom Price, Georgia 6th. congressional district resigns; “travel-gate” up to one million dollars in expenditures cited as causative.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/under-pressure-from-trump-tom-price-resigns-as-health-secretary-over-private-plane-uproar/ar-AAsDfAy?li=BBnb7Kz

    And now, seeking the next guy/gal:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-seeks-new-health-chief-after-price-resignation/ar-AAsDDFd?li=BBnb7Kz

    Dr. David Marcinko MBA

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  8. Alex Azar for HHS

    Trump Chooses Alex Azar for Health and Human Services Secretary.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nominee-for-hhs-secretary-top-health-position-2017-11

    Ann Miller RN MHA

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  9. AZAR is In

    The US senate voted to confirm Alex Azar as Health Secretary. He is an ex-pharma executive and lobbyist to replace Tom Price, MD, as secretary of the HHS.

    Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA

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  10. Azar Brings Back Mandatory Demos, Including Those CMS Canceled

    HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday (Nov. 8) said CMS plans to both bring back the mandatory bundled-pay models the agency canceled last year and look at new models, including for radiation oncology. Azar also said CMS’ innovation center will propose new primary care models before the end of the year.

    Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA

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  11. CMS Announces Reduced Medicare Premiums, Improved Insulin Benefits

    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that the 2021 Medicare enrollment period has officially begun and beneficiaries will have added benefits in the form of new resources, reduced premium options, and improved insulin benefits.

    CMS Administrator Seema Verma explained that there are more plans than ever to choose from with many new benefits and historically low plan premiums. Further, hundreds of health care plans are now offering $35 monthly co-pays for insulin.

    Source: First Report Managed Care [10/16/20]

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  12. New NIH Director

    Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Thursday named the incoming acting National Institutes of Health (NIH) director slated to fill in for Francis Collins.

    Lawrence Tabak, who currently serves as the principal deputy director at NIH, will take on the acting position starting on Dec. 20, while the administration searches for Collins’s permanent replacement, the HHS secretary said in an announcement.

    DEM

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