Executive Summary Introduction Reforms to Medicaid made under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed on July 4, 2025, have reignited longstanding debates over whether public health insurance for low-income adults should be conditioned on work or work-related activity. The policy’s implementation through a requisite 2026 CMS rule requiring 80 hours per month of … Continue reading
Tag Archives: health
Why Are Most Nicotine Pouches on Sale Illegal?
Executive Summary Introduction At U.S. gas stations, the nicotine pouch shelf runs dozens of brands deep, at every strength. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared about two dozen of them, all at the lower-strength end. Almost everything else on that shelf is, under federal law, illegal to sell. The word suggests that the government examined these … Continue reading
Notable Paperwork Expansion Within the CY 2026 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its Current Year (CY) 2026 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and related policy updates on November 5. While the final rule spans a wide range of Medicare payment and operational policies, the information collection request associated with the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program introduces a particularly … Continue reading
Impact of AI on Healthcare
Executive Summary Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a large impact on healthcare by streamlining clinical workflows as well as medical research. Unlike many consumer-facing AI models such as ChatGPT, medical AI solutions are designed to assist with specific purposes such as electronic health record (EHR) documentation, radiological image analysis, and protein structure prediction. A … Continue reading
AI Regulation Updates in the Healthcare Sector
Introduction As Artificial Intelligence (AI) expands into different sectors of United States society, deciding how to regulate AI while still allowing innovation is a pressing problem. In the healthcare sector, there have been multiple lawsuits regarding the use of AI. These span both the insurance and care provider industries, with concerns of bias in AI … Continue reading
Europe / Healthcare / Home Health Services / Medicare / UN
Gear Up: A Comparison of Durable Medical Equipment in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom
Executive Summary: Introduction: Following recent legislation and proposed regulations that look to reduce Medicare or other state-funded spending to that of other similarly situated countries, these reforms may overlook the key differences of the drivers of each nation’s individual health care marketplace. While – international comparisons can sometimes be helpful, comparing the price, reimbursement, and … Continue reading
Inhaler Pricing: A Lack of Market Competition
Executive Summary: Introduction: On January 8th, 2024 the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) sent letters to the CEOs of the four largest manufacturers of inhalers sold in the United States (AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Teva) launching an investigation into the high price of inhalers used for Asthma and Chronic … Continue reading
Housing as Healthcare: Medicaid’s New Program Sparks Debate
Executive Summary: Introduction: On November 16th, 2023, The Biden Administration released a press statement in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announcing the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) Framework, a framework that sets up states to use appropriate interventions to support housing efforts for certain Medicaid … Continue reading
Poor Childhood Nutrition is a Growing Issue in America
Introduction Nutrition is essential at all life stages for overall health, however childhood is a time of increased need for proper nutrition. Key nutrients are needed to promote healthy physical and cognitive growth and development. Unfortunately, the vast majority of American children are not consuming healthy diets. While federal programs and policies aim to provide … Continue reading
A Call for Social Determinants
It is common knowledge that the United States spends substantially more money on health care than other developed nations, yet it is by no means the healthiest country. Health care accounts for one-sixth of United States’ gross domestic product (GDP), but morbidity continues to rise. Two out of three American adults are obese, one-third of American adults have high blood pressure, and diabetes prevalence is … Continue reading
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