Top US health official takes more heat over nursing home staffing standards
By
Kimberly Marselas
Mar 22, 2024
For the second time in a week, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra faced a grilling on Capitol Hill over federal regulators’ plans to impose a nurse staffing minimum on all US nursing...
HHS chief returns focus of low COVID-19 vax rates to nursing homes
By
James M. Berklan
Jan 04, 2024
The nation’s top health official met with US nursing home leaders for the second time in two weeks Wednesday to discuss what he called concerningly low COVID-19 vaccination rates among long-term care...
Lawmaker, providers strike back after HHS leader promotes nursing home minimum staffing mandate
By
James M. Berklan
Mar 30, 2023
A Congresswoman and two major US nursing home associations hit back Wednesday, the day after Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra defended the administration’s plan to impose first-ever...
Citing potential surge, nursing home leaders press for PHE extension
By
Joe Bush
Nov 03, 2022
The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living on Wednesday appealed to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to support the extension of the Public Health Emergency...
Aduhelm’s costs: Medicare recipients won’t get premium reduction until 2023
By
Alicia Lasek (f3)
Jun 01, 2022
A cost overestimate that bumped up Medicare premiums for seniors in 2022 will not be corrected until the following year. The spike is tied to coverage for Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm.
AHCA requests sit-down with Biden, top officials on nursing home reform plans
By
Danielle Brown
Mar 09, 2022
The nation’s largest nursing home association has requested a sit-down with President Joe Biden in a push to clear up “some of the inaccuracies” cited by the president in his nursing home reform...
Biden urged to end public health emergency — what’s at stake
By
Danielle Brown
Feb 15, 2022
A group of Republican lawmakers have called on President Joe Biden to end the COVID-19 public health emergency designation now that there’s more access to vaccines and effective treatments to combat...
Tonko, LaHood urge HHS to expand access to Aduhelm, similar Alzheimer’s drugs
By
Alicia Lasek
Feb 08, 2022
The Medicare coverage proposal for these drugs is too restrictive, limiting potential benefits to a select few, the two congressmen argue in a letter sent Monday to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
CMS will reveal intent to cover Alzheimer’s drug — or not — tomorrow
By
Amy Novotney
Jan 11, 2022
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra on Monday ordered Medicare to reassess a big premium increase facing millions of seniors this year, after an expensive new Alzheimer’s drug...
Clinical briefs for Friday, March 19
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 19, 2021
New HHS Secretary Becerra considered ‘friend of long-term care causes’ … U.K. nursing home staff passed B117 COVID variants to residents in early winter, study finds … 1 in 3 older thyroid disease...