CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, offered some hints at the agency’s priorities in its annual rulemaking for Medicare this year, suggesting a slew of new policies on price transparency, interoperability and physician self-referral laws.

In a proposed rule, CMS would loosen requirements for states with Medicaid managed care programs on analyzing and monitoring access to care, a move the agency said would provide additional relief on “burdensome” regulations finalized by the prior administration.

Downers Grove, Illinois-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee’s Aurora Health Care have gotten the final approval needed to close their merger, which will create the 10th largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the country.

The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill released on March 21 includes boosts in funding for HHS, the National Institutes of Health and efforts to fight opioid abuse. What was left out were measures aimed at stabilizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges with funding for additional reinsurance and restoring the law’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert recently signed legislation that requires facilities performing mammograms to notify women if they have dense breast tissue. The signature makes Utah the 32nd state to enact such a law.

Enrollment in a Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is associated with improvements in appropriateness of breast and colorectal screening, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. It was also associated with a reduction in the number of patients being screened for prostate cancer.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Florida Gov. Rick Scott have all signed breast density reporting legislation into law this week. These laws require facilities that perform mammography to notify patients when it is determined they have dense breast tissue.

The global budgeting, all-payer program adopted for most of Maryland’s hospitals has succeeded in keeping the growth in hospital revenue and Medicare expenditures below the rest of the nation through its first three years, while also reducing readmissions and complications.