Federal Auditors to Investigate NIH s Grants to Wuhan Lab theepochtimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theepochtimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General has found that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services overpaid Anthem roughly $3.4 million due to the insurer allegedly failing to comply with certain federal coding requirements.
In conducting an audit of the Medicare Advantage organization, OIG focused on seven groups of high-risk diagnosis codes. The objective was to determine whether selected diagnosis codes that Anthem submitted for use in CMS s risk adjustment program complied with federal requirements.
The OIG sampled 203 unique enrollee-years with the high-risk diagnosis codes for which Anthem received higher payments for 2015 through 2016. The agency limited the review to the portions of the payments that were associated with those codes, which totaled $599,842.
Photo: Sam Edwards/Getty Images
Congress is mulling changes to Medicare Advantage that would speed up the prior authorization process and mandate more transparency when health plans deny provider requests. The thinking behind the bill is that insurers sometimes use tactics that rein in healthcare costs, but also affect the level of care that providers are able to give.
Health insurers, including those that offer Medicare Advantage plans, require providers to obtain prior authorization for certain medical treatments or tests before they can provide care to their patients. Insurers claim that prior authorization can play a role in ensuring people receive clinically appropriate treatments and help control the cost of care.
COVID-19 vaccines are completely free â but some people are still being billed
By Kelly Hayes
What to do if you lose your COVID-19 vaccine card
Millions of Americans are now carrying a small paper card as a record of having received a COVID-19 vaccine. Here s what to do if you lose your paper card.
COVID-19 vaccines are free to anyone in the U.S. who wants one and come with no copays or costs for those who are uninsured, but some people have still reported receiving bills for the shot.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clearly states on its website that the vaccine should be provided at 100% no cost to recipients, regardless of immigration or health insurance status, and that it’s being paid for by the federal government.
Over 500 U.S. Scientists Under Investigation for Being Compromised by China
On 4/23/21 at 2:46 PM EDT
More than 500 U.S. scientists are under investigation for being compromised by China and other foreign countries, according to a recent hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The hearing was focused on protecting the U.S. s biomedical research from foreign entities such as China. While delivering opening remarks, Senator Patty Murray, chair of the committee, spoke about a recent report from the National Institutes of Health and conflicts of interests among 507 NIH grant recipients. It s important that researchers with foreign affiliations and potential conflicts of interest for example, participation in foreign talent programs or commitments to file patents in, or move laboratories to, foreign nations fully disclose those issues when applying for federal grants, Murray said.