Month: November 2022
The Consolidated Appropriations Act that passed this year will next year make self-insured employers the fiduciaries for the healthcare services that they purchase, which means they’ll have more say about quality and cost but also more responsibility. This portion of the approximately 5,600-page act hasn’t gotten as much attention as, for instance, the parts that guard against ...
The night before his scheduled cataract surgery last November, Bob Miller’s eye doctor informed him the operation would be delayed because his insurer refused to pay. Miller’s Aetna Medicare plan covered a surgery just a few weeks before on his right eye. Without the surgery on his left eye, the 73-year-old residential painting contractor couldn’t ...
Citing a Bloomberg News article, Gov. Gavin Newsom crowed last month about the probability that California would soon pass Germany to become the world’s fourth largest economy. “While critics often say California’s best days are behind us, reality proves otherwise — our economic growth and job gains continue to fuel the nation’s economy,” Newsom said. Throughout ...
California employers will see a number of changes affecting human resources in the new year. Major themes include compensation and leave, but employers also will need to note legislation that adds new retaliation protections for workers, attorneys told HR Dive.
Healthcare insurance premiums remained stable in 2022 compared to 2021 but might surge next year because of inflation and the demands of employees for better mental health coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “2022 Employer Health Benefits Survey.” “Demand” might be the right word, given the competition among employers for workers in a tight ...
It would be understandable if some leaders of self-funded benefits plans have not devoted ample time and attention to the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), introduced into law in late 2021. Plan sponsors, including big and small companies, labor unions, and other organizations that provide health benefits, have had their hands full fending off challenges on ...
Toni Sherwin is actually looking forward to the procedure that will relocate her dialysis port from her chest to her arm, which will be easier to keep dry. Since she started dialysis in February — as part of blood cancer treatment — she has washed her hair in the sink and stayed out of her ...
After several business groups complained about the original timeline of the DOL’s proposed independent contractor rule, the agency is now allowing interested parties 15 additional days to comment on the rule. The U.S. Department of Labor extended the deadline from November 28 to December 13. The proposed rule, released on October 11 (and published in the ...
For 23 years, the private ambulance industry in California had gone without an increase in the base rate the state pays it to transport Medicaid enrollees. At the start of the year, it asked the state legislature to more than triple the rate, from around $110 to $350 per ride. The request went unheeded. In September, American ...
Operating costs in healthcare centers and hospitals across the country are rising amid inflationary pressures, staffing shortages and supply chain disruption, and such locations are going to have to continue implementing measures to help mitigate the highly challenging situation, according to a report from the Medical Group Management Association. While revenues vary across locations, costs rose almost universally from ...