Month: January 2023
Factions of the health care system and members of Congress are turning their fire on an oft-maligned part of the drug pricing system — the middlemen who negotiate discounts with drug companies on behalf of health plans. The business practices of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, have attracted the ire of community pharmacies, health care ...
With 2022 now in the rear-view mirror, let’s take a moment to look at some of key health care and health insurance-related news from last year. Reduced Life Expectancy Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2022 shows the average life expectancy for Americans declined by more than seven ...
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires each Applicable Large Employer (ALE) to report to the IRS on its compliance with the ACA’s Employer Mandate at the conclusion of the compliance calendar year. Copies of such reports must also be distributed to employees by ALEs.
The giant spending bill passed by Congress last month kept the government open. But it also quietly rewrote huge areas of health policy: Hundreds of pages of legislation were devoted to new health care programs.
In a webinar on Wednesday, Shea told attendees that remote work makes FMLA administration “much more challenging,” as FMLA-eligible remote employees may be inclined to check emails or perform other tasks that would otherwise be considered part of their job — even while they’re on FMLA leave.
California is preparing to close dozens of state-run COVID-19 testing and treatment sites ahead of the planned end of the state of emergency in February.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), setting into motion a series of changes to the way that Medicare and its beneficiaries pay for prescription drugs. Much has been written about the act’s individual provisions, but little has been said about how they fit together as a whole. In fact, these seemingly standalone ...
Almost two decades ago, Gerard Anderson and colleagues published the seminal paper ‘It’s the Prices, Stupid’, identifying why health care spending in the US was so much higher than other developed countries. Spoiler alert: it’s the prices. Twenty years on, this conclusion has continued to be affirmed over time and in greater detail. Yet, the many differences between national ...
Dollar General is expanding into healthcare services in what could be a competitive shot across the bow for drugstores and other retailers. The company is piloting mobile health clinics at three stores in Tennessee to provide customers with basic, preventive and urgent care services along with lab testing. The discount retailer teamed up with DocGo, a ...
When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field in the middle of the “Monday Night Football” game in Cincinnati on Jan. 2, Carrie Hastings, half a continent away, understood what she needed to do — and right away. “I had a few guys that I sort of immediately knew ...