Month: December 2020
The Senate voted in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to repeal insurers’ federal antitrust enforcement immunity, sending the bill to the president’s desk. The Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act would amend the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which gave insurers federal immunity from antitrust enforcement and delegated primary authority to regulate consolidation in the insurance industry. ...
Congress at last passed a second stimulus bill this week — as of this writing, it is still awaiting President Trump's signature — and it includes a second round of PPP loans for affected small businesses as well as loan-forgiveness rule changes that are favorable to PPP borrowers.
The federal stimulus package that lawmakers in Washington have agreed to is “very encouraging news” for California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday as he outlined how much of the $900 billion federal package is likely to flow to the Golden State.
A long-discussed surprise medical billing fix will be part of the congressional budget deal that includes $900 billion in new COVID-19 relief.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) selected on Tuesday his longtime political ally and current California secretary of state, Alex Padilla, to fill the U.S. Senate seat when Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris steps down next month.
Worried children can rest easy after the nation’s leading infectious disease expert assured them on Saturday that Santa Claus has gotten a Covid-19 vaccine.
Bank of America estimated Monday that fraud in California’s unemployment benefits system could total $2 billion, and said it has identified 640,000 accounts with suspicious activity that should be investigated to determine whether they are bogus and should be shut down.
Right before the holidays, thousands of self-employed and gig workers just found out they may have to pay back unemployment benefits they have already received. It is a crisis, just before the holidays, many have already spent the money on living expenses. Now nearly one million workers were just notified they might have to pay ...
Even though Americans got more hospital care and prescription drugs in 2019, elimination of a tax on insurers kept the healthcare spending growth rate effectively flat year-over-year.
The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) today directed health plans regulated by the Department to remove administrative burdens on hospitals during the COVID-19 surge. This includes directing plans to take immediate steps to reduce or remove unnecessary barriers to the efficient admission, transfer, and/or discharge of health plan enrollees. “Hospitals and providers are ...