Consumer Driven Health Care

Sen. Bernie Sanders, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, won't hold a hearing on nomination of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli for National Institutes of Health director until Biden offers a drug price plan.

Medicare is planning to send lump-sum payments to more than 1,600 hospitals that participate in a drug discount program after the Supreme Court found the pay cuts to be unlawful in June.

Los Angeles County was allocated $6.3 million from Janssen, the pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, while Knox County, a rural Kentucky county in Appalachia — considered ground zero of the crisis — received $45,395.

From testing roughly 143,000 blood donors nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 77.5% of surveyed individuals had COVID-19 antibodies, from vaccines, the virus, or both, by the end of 2022.

On Friday, President Biden announced proposed rules to limit short-term insurance plans, prevent surprise medical bills and reduce medical debt tied to credit cards.

Leqembi - among the most potent of a new generation of antibodies that help clear a toxic protein that slowly builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients - is expected to lead to far greater coverage by insurers and Medicare.