Trending News Today: Value Based Care Payments Gain Traction

On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a new initiative to change how physicians provide care and get paid. According to an article published by NPR, the new initiative wants to pay physicians based on the value of care patients receive rather than how many patients the physician saw. In 5 years, the second of 2 proposed payment tracks could save Medicare an estimated $2 million.

KaloBios made headlines in November for raising shares almost 2000% in 3 trading days. Now, this company is attempting to pull themselves out of bankruptcy as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company announced they will operate under a new pricing model and they will only raise drug prices once per year that are tied to inflation.

In Arizona, tensions rose in the state Legislature due to the Senate leader’s refusal to reinstate a program to provide health insurance to children from low income areas. This program was designed to help children whose families are not able to afford healthcare and are not able to qualify for Medicaid. The New York Times states that this program, KidsCare, used to insure over 63,000 children, but was cut in 2010 to save money.