Some good news for patients and doctors - the paperwork required by health insurers to get many medical procedures and tests is getting rolled back. UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurer in the U.S., has stated it would cut its use of the prior authorization process. Other major insurers, such as Aetna and Cigna, are moving in the same direction.

An announcement from the Federal Trade Commission (link here) states that GoodRx has been fined $1.5 million dollars for sharing extremely confidential and personally identifiable consumer information with Facebook, Google and other companies, for use in advertising.

This past Saturday, The New York Times reported that Federal Health officials are proposing an extensive set of tougher rules governing Medicare Advantage plans, in response to wide-scale complaints that too many patients' medical claims have been wrongly denied and that marketing of the plans is deceptive.

Whew! Coming down the home stretch in the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) for Medicare, which ends this week on Wednesday, December 7. It has been very busy this season, a good sign that seniors are more knowledgeable, weighing their options and making changes that benefit them.