Arizona’s 2026 governor’s race is expanding beyond the two major parties, with a longtime healthcare executive stepping into an already competitive field as an independent candidate.
Hugh Lytle, founder and former CEO of Scottsdale-based...National News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was widely criticized for discussing revisions to the childhood immunization schedule. This week, the committee's new chairman, Kirk Milhoan, M.D., Ph.D. went on a podcast and appeared to suggest an openness to reviewing...CMS Rules
On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposal for the 2027 Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Advance Notice. The agency proposed a slight increase of 0.09%, shocking shares of publicly traded insurance companies.
The meager increase proposal comes after the Trump administration granted a generous...National News
Last Thursday, the United States formally withdrew from the World Health Organization in a move that many in the scientific community are calling "dangerous." Historically, the United States had been the most influential member of the 194-member organization and was its largest financial contributor.
The withdrawal was announced in a...National News
Six annual spending bills for the budget year need Senate approval this week, including an appropriations bill that would fund the Department of Health and Human Services through September. But following the murder of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday, Democrats have vowed to oppose the bill without changes to...National News
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced significant modifications to the childhood vaccine schedule, cutting the total number of recommended vaccinations from 17 to 11. On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its own immunization guidelines to recommend that children continue to...Arizona News
Arizona’s autism therapy network is under fresh strain this week after UnitedHealthcare began terminating contracts with Action Behavior Centers, prompting new concerns about access to care for children receiving Applied Behavior Analysis therapy under Medicaid managed care plans.
Parents told AZ Family they received notices that...White Papers, E books, Reports and more
As pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are once again poised to fall under regulatory constraints, the Paragon Health Institute has published an explainer on PBMs, how they work and why they've received so much public scrutiny.
The explainer by Paragon, "PBM 101: What They Are and How They Affect Drug Prices" explains that PBMs work as a...National Reports & Surveys
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) released its 2025 end-of-the-year report, which begins with double-digit revenue growth, then pivots to signaling a deliberate pullback in 2026 and pledges to prioritize margin repair over membership expansion, a shift with outsized implications for Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and pharmacy markets, including...National News
The agency estimates that there were $28.83 billion in improper payments to traditional Medicare, which it estimates are down from $31.7 billion in 2024. The Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services acknowledges improper payments are not indicative of fraud or abuse but are typically the result of clerical error.
The agency looked...
An Arizona Medicaid contract dispute involving one of the state’s largest autism therapy providers and one of the largest Medicaid health plans is escalating into litigation, raising questions about network adequacy, reimbursement pressure, and continuity of care for children receiving applied behavior analysis services.
According...
On Tuesday, senior members of Congress announced a deal to fund the government for 2026. The bill would resurrect a number of bipartisan measures that were poised to pass in late 2024 but were undermined by then-President-elect Donald Trump.
The new bill would extend Medicare telehealth and hospital-at-home waivers for two and five...
Last week, President Donald Trump introduced "The Great Healthcare Plan," a policy framework that aims to lower drug prices and cut medical costs for consumers.
In a video address, President Trump called on Congress to enact his Great Healthcare Plan and consolidate the various Trump-era health-adjacent initiatives into a single law....
A Senate report shows that UnitedHealth Group (UHG), the parent company to the nation's and Arizona's largest Medicare Advantage (MA) insurer, UnitedHealthcare (UHC), is artificially inflating the risk adjustment scores of its MA members in order to achieve higher reimbursement from the Medicare program.
The report is based on 50,000...
All eyes are on UnitedHealth Group's last quarterly financial report of 2025 (Q4). The insurance giant's financials are expected to signal the relative strength of the economic sector's effort to prop up much of the job growth in the American economy and respond to aggressive threats from the Trump administration.
UnitedHealth Group...Arizona News
A day after termination notices went out to thousands of substance use disorder and mental health programs nationwide, the federal government reversed course and reinstated the funding.
The abrupt cancellations at the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) would have affected roughly 2,700...
As Medicare Advantage (MA) data watchers wait until mid-February for CMS to release January enrollment figures, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has already completed a rearview analysis of the 2025 MA market and provides insights into 2026.
In its annual report, MedPAC confirms three familiar but still consequential...
The new pediatric emergency department at Banner Children’s at Diamond Children’s Medical Center in Tucson, expands emergency capacity at southern Arizona’s only Level II pediatric trauma center and strengthens access to specialized care for children across the region.
The new pediatric ED features 22 treatment rooms, a...Arizona News
HonorHealth, a Valley-based nonprofit healthcare system serving more than five million people across the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, continues to lead the state in critical care nursing excellence recognition.
HonorHealth now has 12 Beacon-recognized nursing units across five medical centers, representing 75% of the 16...
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs released her proposed $17.7 billion FY2027 executive budget last Friday, quickly drawing fire from Republican lawmakers and setting up negotiations at the state Capitol over taxes, Medicaid funding and administration, SNAP benefits, housing support, education funding, and artificial intelligence as well as how to...
Following the Department of Health and Human Services' overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule, more details are emerging about what the new recommendations entail and how they could impact providers and patients.
When first announced, much of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's new guidance was unclear, but this week...Arizona News
This week, the so-called "superflu" continues to drive an elevated case rate in Arizona and neighboring states, but other seasonal illnesses are also on the rise and the measles outbreak remains ongoing.
There have been a total of 223 measles cases in Arizona since the outbreak began, largely concentrated around the town of Colorado...National News
Healthcare software giant Epic Systems has filed a lawsuit against competitor health information network Health Gorilla and its clients for improperly accessing hundreds of thousands of patient records managed by the company.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday morning in California and accused Health Gorilla of fraud and breach of...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated the childhood immunization schedule to reduce the number of diseases prevented by routine vaccinations from 17 to 11.
The announcement was made on Monday and signals a major shift in federal vaccination policy guided by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F....
January 15 is the last day to enroll in a health plan offered through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace, and preliminary numbers show enrollment has dropped substantially year-over-year.
In a fact sheet published on Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services boasted 22.8 million consumers enrolled in 2026 coverage...
News
