Author: Kalup Alexander

A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

The annual cost of health care for a typical family of four with employer-sponsored insurance has skyrocketed over the past few years to over $25,000 in 2016—yet more Americans say they can afford the bills.

Even when patients make concerted efforts to see doctors covered by their insurance plans at in-network facilities, they run the risk of unknowingly being treated by other out-of-network providers during that visit. A new state bill would protect people from paying hefty surprise medical bills stemming from such out-of-network charges.

Physician influence can be bought for as little as a $20 meal, UCSF researchers have found.

Aetna Inc.’s $37 billion deal to buy Humana Inc.was approved by the California Department of Managed Health Care, which said Monday that it could move forward after the company agreed to invest in the state’s health care infrastructure.

Skyrocketing drug prices are forcing states to take unprecedented measures to rein in health care spending. Vermont just became thenation’s first state to require prescription drug pricing transparency. The New York and Massachusetts attorneys general have launched investigations into major pharmaceutical companies’ and insurers’ drug pricing policies and strategies.

However, he noted that these increases do not reflect any rebates or discounts. After taking those price breaks into account, in fact, Risinger estimated that the actual “net price growth” was slightly less than half of the increases in the list prices.

California lawmakers are lining up in support of a bill that would require health plans to provide information about patient-assistance programs for expensive prescription drugs to enrollees who drop or lose their coverage.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Thursday sought to calm the nerves of health insurers increasingly in doubt about the fate of the ObamaCare marketplace.

Six years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, the health reform law has gained acceptance from a majority of California voters, but the cost of getting healthcare remains a major concern, eclipsing worries about having insurance, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.