Author: Scott Welch
California now has one of the lowest coronavirus infection rates in the country, with 1.9% of people testing positive for the disease in the last week as the nation’s most populous state has so far avoided the uptick feared heading into the end-of-year holidays.
In the post-pandemic world, the demand for expanded benefits will not be a short-lived trend, a new report suggests. The new study by LIMRA and EY finds that non-medical workplace benefits will grow by 20% over the next five years, and said that hybrid work arrangements, growing diversity, and innovations in technology will all contribute to an ...
CVS Health is closing 900 stores over the next three years, amounting to nearly 10% of its footprint, in response to the changing of “consumer buying patterns.” The drug store chain said Thursday that the closures will result in a retail presence that ensures it has the “right kinds of stores in the right locations ...
The House passed a massive, roughly $2 trillion infrastructure package that will give Medicare the power to narrowly negotiate prices on certain prescription drugs and close the Medicaid coverage gap. The package, called the Build Back Better Act, advanced out of the House late Thursday by a vote of 220 to 213. It now heads to ...
The Biden administration has issued an interim final rule that requires private insurers to report prescription drug costs to the federal government. The interim rule, which also includes a request for comment, is the latest in a series of regulations implementing provisions of the No Surprises Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Insurers ...
Workers and families with private health insurance would reap savings on prescription drugs from a little-noticed provision in President Joe Biden’s sweeping social agenda bill. It’s meant to break the cycle of annual price increases for widely used medicines. That provision would require drug companies to pay rebates to Medicare if they increase prices above the rate of ...
An expert committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines voted 11-to-0 on Friday to recommend Covid-19 booster shot eligibility be thrown open to all adults 18 and older. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also recommended, by the same vote, that the CDC lower the age for adults who should ...
When Greta Christina fell into a deep depression five years ago, she called up her therapist in San Francisco — someone she’d had a great connection with when she needed therapy in the past. And she was delighted to find out that he was now “in network” with her insurance company, meaning she wouldn’t have ...
Providers could face a 40% cut on average to their Medicare Part B drug reimbursements under legislation that gives Medicare the power to negotiate a small amount of drug prices in Parts B and D, a new analysis finds. The analysis, released Thursday by consulting firm Avalere, examines the effect of a drug pricing negotiation ...
California’s new coronavirus testing laboratory won’t face sanctions for what state officials had called “significant deficiencies” that a whistleblower said threatened the accuracy of its results, authorities said Monday. The Valencia Branch Laboratory was found to have problems with training and record-keeping but authorities couldn’t substantiate reports stemming from a whistleblower that the lab destroyed ...