Two Iowa lawmakers are calling on CMS to extend the eligibility for transitional health plans through 2023. 

Maine is the first state to combine its individual and small group insurance markets under the ACA, according to the Press Herald. 

CMS is looking to receive feedback from stakeholders on how Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program can increase healthcare access. 

Forty senators penned a letter calling on HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to implement more consumer protections against "junk insurance."

Michigan lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill Feb. 16 that seeks to increase the transparency of its pharmacy benefit managers in an effort to bring down prescription drug prices. 

Thirty-four U.S. senators issued a joint statement to the Biden administration Feb. 16  urging it to increase enforcement against payers who illegally deny birth control coverage.

CMS updated Medicaid's coverage of an early-detection lung cancer screening Feb. 10, a move that would expand coverage nationwide. 

The Federal Trade Commission will vote Feb. 17 whether to investigate the anticompetitive impacts of pharmacy benefit managers on independent pharmacies.  

America's Health Insurance Plans supported CMS' preliminary guidance on covering Aduhelm, Biogen's Alzheimer's disease treatment, calling its decision "the right approach."

Mississippi's House of Representatives passed an amendment to a bill that would bar the state from contracting Medicaid services to entities that have settled with the state for over $50 million — a move specifically targeting Centene — according to the Daily Journal. 

CMS released additional guidance Feb. 4 on how payers should best cover at-home COVID-19 tests. 

President Joe Biden's administration is no longer allowing several states to charge premiums to newly-eligible Medicaid enrollees — an undoing of Obama and Trump-era allowances, according to NPR. 

California's Health Care Services Department issued a notice Feb. 6 that removed prior authorization requirements for most drugs Under Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. 

Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would temporarily extend pandemic-era policies that expanded Medicare's coverage of telehealth services.

The American Medical Association sent statements to two congressional committees claiming that payers are rampantly disregarding mental parity law due to a lack of enforcement. 

There's no such thing as free, even when it comes to free COVID-19 testing, writes Cameron Kaplan, PhD, economist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, in a Feb. 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed. 

COVID-19 test price gouging is still a "significant problem," America's Health Insurance Plans said in a statement submitted to Congress.

CMS is seeking input on an Advanced Notice that includes proposed changes to Medicare Advantage capitation rates and Part D payment policies.

Medicare will cover up to eight at-home COVID-19 tests for beneficiaries beginning in early spring, CMS announced Feb. 3. 

States are anticipating that the federal government will end the COVID-19 public health emergency sometime in 2022, which would require them to potentially unenroll upwards of 15 million people from Medicaid programs, according to Politico.