Month: March 2022
With the Omicron wave of the coronavirus flattening, California is about to make more big moves in its mask rules. Officials said masks will be strongly recommended — but no longer required — for unvaccinated individuals in most indoor settings starting Tuesday.
During a Feb. 10 speech about lowering health care costs, President Joe Biden made a sweeping declaration that Americans would no longer need to worry about surprise medical bills. “No more surprise billing. No more,” said Biden. “Millions of hardworking Americans will no longer have to worry about unexpected medical bills.”
Just a few years ago, brokers looking ahead to 2020 could not have predicted the radical changes that the pandemic would soon bring to the industry. And assumptions about the economy over the past few years have consistently proven to be wrong. What the coming year has in store is anyone’s guess, but benefits advisors continue to move forward by applying the lessons of the past and implementing new strategies for the future.
Democratic lawmakers shied away from legislation that would have put state government in charge of health care and taxed Californians heavily to do so — a massive transformation that would have forced them to take on the powerful health care industry.
A federal judge has partially revived California’s “pay for delay” law, which prohibits pharmaceutical companies from paying competitors to keep generic drugs off the market. But the law’s author said the latest ruling would still allow companies to sidestep enforcement. The 2020 law, the first of its kind in the nation, was aimed at a ...
California schools and childcare facilities no longer have to require masks indoors after March 11, state officials announced Monday, although masks are still “highly recommended.” The announcement does not necessarily mean that all San Diego County students will be able to ditch masks immediately after that date, however. Schools can continue to require masks if ...
Last year, as expected, life insurers in the United States paid out a large number of Covid-19 death-benefit payouts. Surprisingly, many people saw an increase in other types of death claims as well. Many of the other fatalities, according to industry executives and actuaries, are linked to delays in medical care as a result of ...
Providers say they dodged a bullet when the Biden administration decided to redesign the Direct Contracting Model instead of eliminating it entirely as progressive lawmakers and groups demanded. However, it remains unclear whether the redesigned model set to launch next year will quell criticisms from progressives that the model will lead to the privatization of ...
Employers continue to grapple with the ripple effects of the pandemic as more than one-third of employees report long COVID symptoms that impact their ability to work, including higher rates of depression, anxiety and absenteeism. Among those employees who are still having long-term effects, 71% are experiencing greater levels of depression or anxiety and many ...
CVS Caremark kept overall drug trend for clients to 2.4% over the first three quarters of 2021, marking multiple years of single-digit trend in drug price growth. The pharmacy benefit management arm of CVS Health also kept its specialty drug trend to single digits through the third quarter, at an industry-low 5.8%, according to the ...