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Bloomberg
President Donald Trump’s choice to be the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services will go before the Senate Finance Committee Jan. 9, a major step toward his confirmation. The agency has been without a permanent leader at its helm since former secretary Tom Price resigned in late September. Alex Azar, former president of Eli Lilly & Co. and former deputy secretary at the HHS, is likely to face the same questions about his ties to the pharmaceutical industry and his ideas for tackling high drug prices he faced the last time he went before a congressional committee. In November, Senate Democrats questioned whether Azar could take on an industry he was a part of for several years.
Medicaid Health Plans of America, which backs Azar's nomination, told Bloomberg Law in a separate statement that, on the contrary, the nominee's drug industry experience "gives him the expertise about drug pricing needed to set a direction for increased value at lower cost." Additionally, Azar has shown a "commitment to work with the private sector to address drug prices," Jeff M. Myers, president and CEO of Medicaid Health Plans of America, said in the statement.
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Inside Health Policy (Subscription required)
Stakeholders are looking for CMS to move on its promises to change Medicaid 1115 waivers to allow for work requirements, and one Medicaid expert says waivers will become even more important in 2018 if lawmakers back away from entitlement reform. MHPA CEO Jeff Myers comments on Medicaid reform, social determinants of health, actuarial soundness, work requirements and other waiver issues.
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Upper Peninsula Health Plan
Upper Peninsula Health Plan (UPHP) President and CEO, Dennis Smith, has announced his retirement after 15 years with UPHP. In July 2018, he will be succeeded as CEO by Melissa Holmquist, currently Chief Operations Officer at UPHP. A native of Ann Arbor, Dennis Smith has been the CEO of UPHP since April 2003.
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Vox
When a Virginia elections official pulled a name out of bowl on Thursday, he didn't only hand Republicans a 51-49 majority — the tiebreaker will also make it a little harder for the state to expand health coverage to 400,000 low-income Virginians. Virginia Democrats won the governor's seat on Election Night and very nearly swept to a shocking takeover of the state House. But they fell short after recounts and Thursday's tiebreaker in the race between Republican David Yancey and Democrat Shelly Simonds (both got 11,608 votes) left the GOP hanging onto a bare majority.
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The Hill
President Donald Trump has not changed his position on protecting entitlement programs from funding cuts, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday. After last month's GOP victory on tax reform, many Republicans are calling for changes to the social safety net as a way to cut government spending. But, asked about Trump's repeated campaign pledge to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Sanders said he doesn't support cuts to the programs.
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The Associated Press via TIME
A first-of-its kind genetic treatment for blindness will cost $850,000 per patient, making it one of the most expensive medicines in the world and raising questions about the affordability of a coming wave of similar gene-targeting therapies. The injectable treatment from Spark Therapeutics can improve the eyesight of patients with a rare genetic mutation that affects just a few thousand people in the U.S. Previously there has been no treatment for the condition, which eventually causes complete blindness by adulthood.
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California Healthline
Many of the dental services cut nine years ago were restored on Jan. 1 for about 7.5 million adults on Medi-Cal, many of whom had to get their teeth pulled rather than repaired. Some benefits had been partially restored in 2014, such as fillings and X-rays, but critical treatments remained uncovered, including lab-processed crowns, root canals on back teeth, treatments for gum disease and partial dentures. Those procedures are now covered. But a critical question looms: Will there be enough dentists willing to accept the rates that Denti-Cal — Medi-Cal's dental program — pays for them?
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The News Journal
Delaware's Medicaid program will cover treatment visits for people struggling with obesity in 2019 with the hopes it will improve health outcomes for Delawareans. The Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance is one of nine founding members of My Healthy Weight, a national initiative targeted to fight obesity. This concept was developed by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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Watch Eliza’s on demand webinar titled: Know your Members: Segmentation Strategies to Impact Engagement, where Ralph Perfetto, Ph.D., Chief Analytics Officer breaks down member segmentation strategies to inform, remind, and persuade persona activation to drive engagement results. Watch Now →
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The Topeka Capital-Journal
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday appointed an interim secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to replace Susan Mosier, who announced in November she would step down from the embattled agency that partially oversees the state's Medicaid program.
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A KLAS Leader in the delivery of actionable population health, i2i Population Health’s integrated Population Health Management and Analytics solutions have proudly served healthcare organizations for over 17 years. The company offers a depth of experience gained from over 2,500 healthcare delivery sites across 34 states, supporting 20+ million lives.
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The Denver Post
Kim Bimestefer on Tuesday was named executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the agency that oversees the state's Medicaid program. The agency serves more than 1.3 million Coloradans. Bimestefer, a private-sector health care industry executive, begins work on Jan. 8.
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