Month: April 2021
More employers and healthcare payers are carving out their pharmacy benefit management as they seek more transparency, business groups said. Health plans typically administer pharmacy benefit services internally or contract pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate rebates and discounts with drug manufacturers and pocket an undisclosed share. More employers and payers are contracting directly with PBMs, ...
CHOICE Administrators announced the addition of Cigna + Oscar to the CaliforniaChoice multi-carrier private health insurance exchange. With coverage from Cigna + Oscar available effective July 1, 2021, small business employees now have more than 120 plan options available and 20 different networks in the CaliforniaChoice program.
The federal government is preparing to open two new industry-specific small-business relief programs, one of them months in the works, as its signature pandemic aid effort, the Paycheck Protection Program, nears its end.
Ride-sharing company Lyft is letting patients schedule nonemergency medical transport (NEMT) on health organization's dime with the launch of Lyft Pass for Healthcare.
As members of Congress decide how to expand access to telehealth after the pandemic, one of the biggest questions has centered around how much Medicare providers should be paid for virtual care.
Store shelves at pharmacies across the county will soon be filled with affordable, quick, at-home coronavirus test kits. BinaxNOW, a rapid COVID test made by Abbott Laboratories, was shipped Monday to major pharmaceutical chains, including Walgreens, CVS and Walmart, to be sold over the counter.
A relatively small share of drugs made up the majority of Medicare drug spending, according to a new analysis that gives an idea of how drug price negotiations could impact overall spending. The analysis, released Monday from the Kaiser Family Foundation, examined the top drugs for both Medicare Part D and Part B. The costliest drugs ...
Employment in the U.S. healthcare industry has dropped by 44,000 jobs over the course of the first quarter of 2021, according to reports from nonprofit healthcare research and consulting group Altarum. These job losses came alongside continued spending growth recovery and increases in overall healthcare prices. Modest employment gains in February and March were unable to ...
Nearly a third of Californians 18 and older — 30.7 percent — are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a key metric just days after the state made everyone 16 and older eligible for a dose. More than half of adults — 53.3 percent — have received at least one shot of the vaccination, according to data ...
A limited number of spectators will be allowed at the U.S. Women’s Open in San Francisco and the U.S. Open in San Diego in June provided they are vaccinated or can show proof of a negative test for the coronavirus. The USGA announced the policy Monday after consulting with California health officials. While the U.S. ...