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U.S. health regulators are investigating complaints about laboratory and research practices at Theranos Inc. by two former employees of the blood-testing startup company, according to people familiar with the inquiries. (Carreyrou, 12/20)

A Silicon Valley story with intoxicating appeal, Theranos by some measures has a $9 billion valuation because, in part, of its claims that its proprietary technology has the potential to disrupt the established players in health care. But an investigation published in The Wall Street Journal in October changed the narrative by raising serious concerns about whether the company’s technology actually works. (Abelson and Creswell, 12/19)

Telemedicine’s advocates, frustrated by the Congressional Budget Office's lack of enthusiasm for increasing payment for their technology, are crying foul at the federal budget keepers. They charge that CBO routinely overestimates the cost of new Medicare services — and there’s some evidence they are right. To date, CBO's estimates for telemedicine expansion have produced a resounding thumbs down. Senators, led by Hawaii's Brian Schatz, are preparing to introduce a bill to expand Medicare services paid for the technology, but like all other pieces of legislation, its fate lies in CBO's hands. (Pittman, 12/21)

Nearly 20 years after videoconferencing technology has been available for health services, fewer than 1 percent of Medicare beneficiaries use it. Anthem and a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health plan in western Pennsylvania are the only two Medicare Advantage insurers offering the virtual visits, and the traditional Medicare program has tightly limited telemedicine payments to certain rural areas. And even there, the beneficiary must already be at a clinic, a rule that often defeats the goal of making care more convenient. (Galewitz, 6/23)