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The administration is finally following through on the Trump imposed hospital transparency rule. They have fined Northside Hospital Atlanta and Northside Hospital Cherokee for not posting a comprehensive list of standard charges. Both hospitals had received warnings prior to the fines. The fines for the two Northside hospitals total almost $1.1 million.
Colorado has a new law stating hospitals who do not post their prices online may not use debt collectors to get money owed them. They may bill the patient directly but if they pursue collection actions they must refund any debt paid by the patient plus all legal fees.
South Carolina now has a law to protect practitioners and institutions who want to refuse a type of non-emergent care due to religious moral or ethical beliefs.
President Biden signed an executive order with no teeth regarding sexual discrimination. He has charged various departments to address the various issues which may or may not occur and who knows when.
Just prior to the US Supreme Court declaring that abortions was an issue to be decided by the individual states, California passed a bill that would deny other state's laws to punish abortion providers to be enforced in the left state.
The Biden administration is pushing for the mandatory acceptance of mifepristone, the pill that induces abortions. They make a great point that it is a FDA approved pill so should not be able to be banned. However, states have their own Medicaid formulary and could potentially block the obtaining of the pill by Medicaid patients. Currently this pill is used in over 50% of abortions.
The FDA has taken away Juul's products ability to be sold in the country. The company appealed the probably illegal action and won a temporary restraining order to allow it to continue to sell its products.
The California Department of Managed Health Care has fined Molina Healthcare of California $1 million for not timely resolving provider disputes in the 2017-18 time frame.
California has enacted a new law requiring data sharing between providers. This includes all small physician offices. The state has approved $50 million to help small physician offices and rural hospitals comply with the requirements.
The FDA has decided that the new covid shots for this fall should target the Omicron types.
The Senate has scuttled a proposed law to bring the VA system up to date by closing some facilities and bring others more up to speed. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the
information presented.