Biden Administration Pushes Insurers For Better Mental Health Coverage

AP: The Biden Administration Proposes New Rules To Push Insurers To Boost Mental Health Coverage
President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday is announcing new rules meant to push insurance companies to increase their coverage of mental health treatments. The new regulations, which still need to go through a public comment period, would require insurers to study whether their customers have equal access to medical and mental health benefits and to take remedial action, if necessary. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act requires that insurers provide the same level of coverage for both mental and physical health care — though the administration and advocates argue insurers’ policies restrict patient access. (7/25)

In other news from the Biden administration —

AP: $58M In Federal Grants Aim To Help Schools, Day Care Centers Remove Lead From Drinking Water
The Biden administration announced $58 million in grants to help schools and day care centers remove lead from drinking water during an event in Boston on Monday. The grants will help local communities test for lead in drinking water, identify potential sources of the contamination, and take steps to address the problem, said Radhika Fox, the Environmental Protection Agency’s assistant administrator for water. (7/25)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Weighs Potential Deal With China On Fentanyl 
The Biden administration is discussing lifting sanctions on a Chinese police forensics institute suspected of participating in human-rights abuses, people familiar with the matter said, in a bid to secure Beijing’s renewed cooperation in fighting the fentanyl crisis. (Spegele and Hutzler, 7/24)

Modern Healthcare: CMS' 340B Remedy Favors Hospitals That Provide Less Charity Care
Hospitals that would receive the biggest 340B remedy payments under a new proposal to correct unlawful reimbursement cuts tended to provide proportionally less uncompensated care than other 340B-eligible hospitals. (Kacik and Broderick, 7/24)

On other developments —

Axios: Cigna Suit Brings AI And Algorithm Complaints To Healthcare
Cigna Healthcare is facing a federal class action lawsuit which alleges the company used algorithms to "deny payments in batches of hundreds or thousands at a time," as part of an almost completely automated claims decision process. (Heath, 7/25)

Stat: New Lawsuit Accuses Health Insurer Cigna Of Denying Claims In Bulk
A new lawsuit accuses Cigna of using an algorithm to automatically deny claims in bulk instead of individually reviewing each case, putting patients on the hook for bills the health insurer otherwise would have paid. (Bannow, 7/24)

Stat: House Panel Proposes Lowering Medicare Out-Of-Pocket Drug Costs
A key House committee announced its own plans to increase health care transparency and reduce some health care costs for patients on Monday, according to bill text obtained by STAT. The House Ways & Means Committee package includes a new provision that would ensure that patients in the Medicare program pay for medicines they pick up at the pharmacy counter based on the discounted price that insurers negotiate with drugmakers, instead of higher sticker prices, starting in 2027. (Cohrs, 7/24)

KFF Health News: Hospitals Ask Congress To Delay ACA Medicaid Funding Cuts — For The 14th Time
It has become as familiar a sight in Washington as the cherry blossoms in spring: lobbyists from the nation’s hospitals descending on the Capitol to ask lawmakers to postpone billions in Medicaid funding cuts prescribed by the Affordable Care Act — cuts industry leaders agreed to years ago. It is unlikely the reductions will occur this year, if history is any indication. Since 2013, Congress has voted 13 times to delay them, siding with hospitals over their claims that losing the money would hinder the delivery of care. (Galewitz, 7/25)

Stat: New AMA Leader On Medicine's 'AI Era' And Telehealth Uncertainty
Much has been made of Jesse Ehrenfeld’s career of firsts. The current president of the American Medical Association, inaugurated in June, has long advocated for safe and equitable care for sexual and gender minorities, leading to an inaugural National Institutes of Health award for his research in the area. The anesthesiologist was the youngest-ever officer of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and this year became the first openly gay president of the AMA. Adding to that list: Ehrenfeld is the first board-certified clinical informaticist to take on the AMA’s top role — bringing a set of skills that could be particularly useful as medicine reacts to the rapid evolution of technology. (Palmer, 7/25)

Stat: IQVIA's Health Data Empire, Used To Target Ads, Hit By FTC Lawsuit
The health data giant IQVIA became a dominant force by gobbling up its rivals. Over decades, it feasted on upstarts with new datasets or novel technologies, growing into a juggernaut with no peer in the business of brokering Americans’ medical information. Now, government regulators say, IQVIA’s appetite for acquisition is getting out of control — and must be reined in. (Ross, 7/25)

Also —

Axios: As "Oppenheimer" Is Celebrated, Arizonans Await Atomic Testing Compensation
The release of "Oppenheimer" has rekindled discussion and debate over one of the most important events in U.S. history: the development of the atomic bomb. The first atomic bomb testing occurred in neighboring New Mexico in 1945. After World War II, the federal government moved testing to the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles north of Las Vegas. The nuclear tests released radiation that carried downwind into Arizona and other southwestern states, leading to increased risk of cancer, per the CDC. (Boehm, 7/24)

The 19th: How The ADA Expanded The Definition Of Disability
Three decades ago, people with disabilities — and all workers marginalized because of their identities — began to see a transformation in the workplace thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The law, signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, represented a new approach to understanding the full scope of what employees truly need in the workplace to do their jobs. That concept has evolved in the years since the ADA went into effect: Back then, courts were only starting to understand the power and promise of the ADA, said Ben Klein, who litigated the first case on the ADA. (Carrazana, 7/24)