Author: Kalup Alexander
Pharmaceutical heavyweight Mylan, the latest poster child for drug-industry greed, finally stuck up for itself Thursday. It argued that “the system,” not avarice, was to blame for the company jacking up the price of EpiPens, a common (and life-saving) allergy remedy, by over 400%.
Under existing law, the California Department of Managed Health Care and the California Department of Insurance review rate hikes proposed by the insurers and health plans each regulates.
A measure to protect California consumers from surprise medical bills — among the longest-debated issues to be considered by state lawmakers — moved closer than it’s ever been to becoming law when the Senate approved it Monday with a 35-1 vote.
Roughly 20 million more Americans have health insurance now than when President Obama’s health care law was passed in 2010.
The 2010 health law was meant to expand insurance coverage so that Americans could get medical care they would otherwise go without — and not spend a fortune doing so. Though it’s still early, new evidence suggests this scenario is playing out.
The Obama administration has launched a probe into whether health-care providers such as dialysis centers are steering patients eligible for Medicare and Medicaid benefits into insurance plans offered on the health law’s exchanges.
Medicare spending on prescriptions increased more than 17% in 2014, despite a claims increase of only about 3%, according to data released Thursday.
The Obama administration is moving to end duplicate coverage for tens of thousands of people who are enrolled in Medicaid and simultaneously receiving federal subsidies to help pay for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
The “most important factor” that drives prescription drug prices higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world is the existence of government-protected “monopoly” rights for drug manufacturers, researchers at Harvard Medical School report today.
As evidence mounts that rates for health plans sold on public exchanges are rising higher than expected and causing large insurers to cut and run from this marketplace, brokers and advisers can glean useful information from these developments.