Update

President Biden's battle against high drug prices, part of the Inflation Reduction Act, is intended to give Medicare patients immediate relief and, in the long term, to regulate what drugmakers charge for their products.

While there is no system in place to equitably manage the patient-to-clinician ratio across every state, the system counts only physicians, not the myriad other health care professionals who now provide the nation's primary care.

The Rural Emergency Hospital program guarantees hospitals extra cash if they provide emergency and outpatient services but end inpatient care, although just 18 out of 1,700 eligible hospitals have won the new designation.

Patients who have experienced severe stomach complications from the new class of GLP-1 weight loss drugs are now suing Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly alleging that the drugmakers misled doctors on the drugs' potential risks.

On Feb. 1, the CMS will send its initial offer of a fair price for each of the 10 selected prescription drugs to the drugmakers, who have all filed lawsuits attempting to block the government's effort to control drug prices.

Federal regulations require health insurers to promptly hand over records to patients facing claim denials within 30 days, however, Anthem, Aetna and UnitedHealth blew past the 30-day deadline in a recent ProPublica investigation.

Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner, who both have championed to lower the cost of prescription drugs, applauded Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly – the three major insulin manufacturers – for slashing prices, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

The IRS announcements include a number of dollar amounts employers will need to know in order to administer their benefit plans for 2024, including the key dollar amounts for retirement plans, FSAs, HSAs and HDHPs.