Experts Foresee Big Premium Increases for Medicare Drug Plan

With time running out on open enrollment season, many seniors are facing sharply higher premiums for Medicare’s popular prescription drug program. The reason: rising drug costs have overtaken a long stretch of stable premiums. Beneficiaries have until Dec. 7 to see if there’s a lower-cost plan that will cover their medications in 2016. Consumer advocates ...

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CMS May Impose Minimum Provider-Network Standards for ACA Plans

The CMS has proposed mandating minimum network standards for health plans sold on the federal insurance marketplace in 2017 as part of an effort to handle the broad shift toward narrow provider networks. The Affordable Care Act requires that all medical policies on the exchanges have enough in-network hospitals and doctors for members so that ...

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Pfizer’s Tax-Avoiding Megamerger with Allergan Sparks Outcry

A $160 billion megamerger announced Monday would turn U.S. pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer Inc. into an Irish drug company, using a controversial tactic that allows companies to dodge billions of dollars in corporate taxes by renouncing their U.S. citizenship. Pfizer’s deal with Botox-maker Allergan, which would create the world’s largest drugmaker, immediately sparked criticism from Democrats ...

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End of Medicare Bonus Program Will Cut Pay To Primary Care Doctors

Many primary care practitioners will be a little poorer next year because of the expiration of a health law program that has been paying them a 10 percent bonus for caring for Medicare patients. Some say the loss may trickle down to the patients, who could have a harder time finding a doctor or have to wait ...

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Administration Is Seeking Ways to Keep Prescription Drugs Affordable

The Obama administration began building a political case Friday for government actions to protect people against high pharmaceutical costs, saying millions of Americans were unable to afford lifesaving prescription drugs. “As costs go up, so does everyone’s anxiety about their continued access to their prescription medicine,” said Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the ...

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No Love for Obamacare, but Most in U.S. See Government Role for Health Care

They may have no love for Obamacare, but a new poll shows that more than half of Americans now think that it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all Americans have health insurance overage. A new Gallup poll finds that more than half of Americans agreed with that sentiment, up six ...

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Senate Sets Up ObamaCare Repeal Bill

The Senate on Thursday fast-tracked a House-passed effort to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used a procedural move to let the House bill skip over the Senate’s committee process and be placed directly on the Senate calendar, where it could be teed up for action on the ...

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Brown Administration Continues Efforts To Replace MCO Tax

Officials with Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) administration say that efforts to rework the expiring managed care organization tax are ongoing, Capital Public Radio’s “KXJZ News” reports (Orr, “KXJZ News,” Capital Public Radio, 11/19). Background The current MCO tax expires in June 2016. In July, federal officials said they would not reauthorize the formula California uses. ...

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UnitedHealth’s Threat To Leave Exchanges Not Expected To Mean Much in California

UnitedHealth Group’s announcement this week that it may pull out of Affordable Care Act exchanges is not expected to have much of an impact on Covered California, experts said, but the move could have serious repercussions in other exchanges. Although the for-profit company hasn’t been a major player in most exchanges and is a late-comer ...

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Biggest Insurer Threatens to Abandon Health Law

The biggest U.S. health insurer said it has suffered major losses on policies sold on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges and will consider withdrawing from them, adding to worries about the future of the marketplaces at the heart of the Obama administration’s signature health law. The disclosure by UnitedHealth Group Inc., UNH 0.92 % which ...

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