Experts Alarmed by USPSTF Work Slowdown www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/...

JUST IN: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore $12 million in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics, saying the terminations appear to be retaliation for the group's view points re: vaccine safety/efficacy. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), run by Oz and his boss, RFK Jr., will no longer require physicians to report vaccination rates. Instead, they plan to start having doctors report if they’ve discussed “alternative” vaccine schedules.

CMS to stop requiring states to report childhood vaccination levels www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

🚨 In addition to the enhanced ACA tax credits expiring half an hour from now, there's several OTHER awful healthcare policies which are about to go into effect starting January 1st due to either the #BigUglyBill or regulatory changes by RFK Jr & Dr. Oz: acasignups.net/25/07/30/hea...

“About a third of the staff at one Miami nursing home lost their jobs after the Trump administration ended the programs letting them work legally.”

By doing so here, the Trump Administration runs smack into the prohibition on Medicare and Medicaid regulating the practice of medicine (as opposed to deciding what they'll pay for). Congress recognized regulating the practice of medicine is a state function, not one for Medicare/Medicaid.

I am not aware of another Medicare/Medicaid condition of participation that bars a provider from using clinical judgment to provide a particular treatment to patients *not* paid for with federal dollars.

Under the proposed rule issued by the Trump Administration today, any Medicare- or Medicaid-participating hospital would be barred from providing gender-affirming care to *any child*, even if the care is not paid for by Medicare or Medicaid. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-23465.pdf

With no extension of enhanced tax credits, ACA enrollees are going to start the year with premium payments increasing by an average of 114%, or over $1,000 a year per person. Some will find a way to pay it, some have switched to higher deductibles, and some have dropped coverage.

Scammers often purport to offer private Medicare Advantage plans; confusing array of enrollment options/procedures creates opportunities for fraudsters.

Complaints about gaps in Medicare Advantage networks are common. Federal enforcement is rare.

Starting Jan. 1, traditional Medicare recipients in Washington state will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered — private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny. www.kuow.org/stories/thou...

In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of food stamps are employed, half of them full-time. Nearly 2,500 work for Amazon and another 2,300 work for Walmart. Uber, DoorDash and Tempus Unlimited each have more than 1,400 workers who rely on SNAP www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...

Not out yet, but my forthcoming book Coverage Denied is available for preorder! www.amazon.com/Coverage-Den...

We're drowning in passwords & multi-factor authentication & chatbots & "unusually high call volume" & robots ignoring "representative!" We should think more carefully about how Social Security uses these tools with our parents & grandparents. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/aint-no-pa...

I decided to convert dollars to centimeters. That allows us to visualize, for example, the distance between having no money and being at poverty level — about four city blocks. 2/8

Alice Wong was such an amazing activist. I had the honour of meeting her when she spoke as part of the Disrupting Disruptions series that I organize. May we continue to honour her work by working towards a more socially just world.

"(T)ens of millions of Americans rely on monthly SNAP benefits to pay for food. In support of their motion for a TRO, plaintiffs provided overwhelming evidence of the harms that even a short suspension of benefits would cause, including numerous declarations from SNAP beneficiaries"

A distinguished federal judge appointed by President Reagan steps down to free himself to fight publicly for the rule of law. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

This is an absolutely insane administrative process. Within the space of a week, states were told by judges/White House *no SNAP benefits *half benefits *full benefits *pause provision of benefits. Result is chaos, uncertainty, and uneven access to benefits depending on where people live.

SNAP UPDATE: I’m directing SNAP benefits to be processed today — and paid IN FULL starting tomorrow. Americans are going hungry because President Trump chose to play politics with their lives. People need to eat. We’re making sure they do.

Why Medicare Recipients Should Check Their 2026 Drug Plans Now www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/b...

(con't.) -- Medicare/Medicaid rule would be huge expansion of Presidential power to ban any care (abortion, IVF, mifepristone) it doesn't like. Trump has relied on intimidation until now to stop hospitals; new rules will finally subject this to tests of legality in court. @rikiwilchins.bsky.social

This week’s main story details what Medicare Advantage is, why it basically has all the pitfalls of private insurance, and what a Mountain Chicken is. And if you don’t already know what a Mountain Chicken is, go ahead and visualize a “Mountain Chicken” in your head now. Great. It’s not that.

Another shutdown casualty: Medicare telehealth coverage

Four in ten who buy their own coverage say they would go without coverage if ACA premiums doubled. They will increase 114% if enhanced tax credits are not extended: on.kff.org/4nACyIk

New: Broad support across the political spectrum for extending enhanced ACA premium tax credits.

I can’t say I know exactly how it all would have played out, but I would much rather live in the alternate universe where the leaders of Columbia University had stood up for the institution and all of its faculty and students.

This week a Medicare beneficiary won a retrospective change of status appeal that granted him coverage of costly hospital services. The appeal was made possible by the Center for Medicare Advocacy’s class action case, litigated with amazing co-counsel @justiceinaging.org & @wilsonsonsini.bsky.social

Great digging by Christina Jewett: Dr. Oz previously acted as a pitchman for iHerb, which sells the vitamin supplement that he promoted as an autism treatment sitting during Trump’s press conference, and which the FDA is moving to approve for that use www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/h...

We can save RFK Jr some time here, because we already know a lot about acetaminophen and autism! There’s no increased risk of autism from use of this drug. This isn’t based on some small study. It’s thanks to a beautiful study of literally millions of children… wapo.st/4nkMdCO

15 years after it passed, we're still debating Obamacare. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

We filed a FOIA request along with @justiceinaging.org, @nilc.org, and @rcusa.bsky.social seeking transparency as the “Big Beautiful Bill” strips thousands of lawfully present immigrants of Medicare, regardless of how long they worked and paid Medicare taxes.

The Pitt has plans to tackle stories next season related to federal health care cuts. I've got some ideas in a new column out in @jama.com. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

“Appealing a coverage denial demands a high degree of health insurance literacy and fortitude that most of us lack, especially in a health crisis….Thus, health care becomes rationed not through a final denial of coverage, but rather through accumulations of inconveniences as patients.”

Well that got fixed quickly Go Massachusetts! www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/04/m...

Judge Sooknanan: As I said at the start of this hearing, I got a call at 2:36 am [last night] because the government chose the wee hours of the morning on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend to execute a plan to move these children. That's why we're here.

We will be in court shortly.

BREAKING: We filed an emergency lawsuit to stop the Trump admin from unlawfully expelling hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the U.S. The targeting of children is vile. We will use every tool at our disposal to stop the administration from sending any child to danger.

My Medicare Part D for 2026 is a 50% increase and I’m subsidized through Extra Help. Completely insane. I’ve been on Medicare since 2009 and I’ve never experienced this type of increase.

Health officials under JB Pritzker, who is showing how to take on Trump, are moving forward. They're exploring buying vaccines in bulk themselves. Mass. Gov Maura Healey is in talks with multiple other states about coordinating purchasing of pediatric vaccines. newrepublic.com/article/1998...

Blue states can also buy vaccines in bulk and distribute them via their chief medical officer or via doctors, says @sbagen.bsky.social. The idea would be to make vaccines available to all, including those restricted under RFK lunacy. Great stuff from Sam here: newrepublic.com/article/1998...

“The companies represent ‘a whole new bounty hunter,’ said David A. Lipschutz, the co-director for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, one of the groups that has urged government officials to abandon the program.”

“Americans will die because of your Medicaid cuts.” That’s the warning from a Chicago priest as Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA. #ProtectOurCare

Medicare beneficiaries ages 85+ spend 22% of their income on out-of-pocket health care costs on average, more than double the 9% spent by beneficiaries ages 65-74. The difference is largely due to higher out-of-pocket spending on long-term care. https://on.kff.org/4lL3R0S

Lawyer says the ICE officer who took him did not answer when asked why he was being taken into custody. A new lawsuit has been filed challenging his current confinement and potential deportation. Crowd shouts “Shame! Shame!”

The answer to real-life trolley problems? Return to your first instinct when confronted with a theoretical trolley problem, which is to break the premise. You can't do that in the world of the theoretical. But you can in the real world. Can? Should. Should? Must.

Trump proposes to rescind AIDS funds. Congress rejects the proposal. So Trump and his henchman Russ Vought just refuse to spend the money and try to hide that decision from Congress and the public. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/h...

The outrageous stupidity is outweighed only by the gratuitous cruelty. Read this. www.masslive.com/news/2025/08...