Three bills that would supply vision, dental and hearing coverage benefits – including eyeglasses, dental implants and hearing aids – to Medicare recipients was passed by the US House Ways and Means Committee on 22 October. The same troika of bills was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week, and two Senate committees with health-care jurisdiction are considering similar legislation.

The Stark Law ban on self-referrals wouldn’t apply to some physician owners of advanced imaging facilities under a CMS final rule.

The US health department's Office of Inspector General issued a special fraud alert under the Anti-Kickback Statute on health care speaker programs, to cut down on lucrative speaker deals and free meals to induce device purchases.