Business Groups Ask White House To Delay Biden COVID Vaccine Mandate Until After The Holidays

Worried that President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate for private companies could cause a mass exodus of employees, business groups are pleading with the White House to delay the rule until after the holiday season.

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Direct Primary Care, With a Touch of Robin Hood

Britta Foster and Minerva Tiznado are in different leagues as far as health care is concerned. Foster, who married into the family that owns the $2.5 billion Foster Farms chicken company, has Blue Shield coverage as well as a high-octane primary care plan that gives her 24/7 digital access to her doctor for a $5,900 annual fee ...

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Biden Administration Unveils New COVID Vaccine, Testing Requirements For Travel Into U.S.

The Biden administration on Monday released updated guidelines for traveling into the United States, including stricter requirements on U.S. citizens who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 as well as some exceptions for foreign travelers. Beginning Nov. 8, unvaccinated U.S. citizens and long-term residents will have to present a negative Covid test taken a day before re-entering the ...

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Thousands Of State Workers Are Unvaccinated. California Isn’t Testing Half Of Them For COVID As Required

Three months after Gov. Gavin Newsom required state workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing, his pledge that California government would lead by example has not been fulfilled: Many public agencies face low vaccination rates, and most state-run workplaces have failed to test unvaccinated employees. At the California Department of Forestry ...

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Large Private Employer Coalition Creates Pharmacy Benefit Management Firm

A nonprofit coalition of nearly 40 private employers, including U.S. retailers Walmart and Costco, said on Monday it has launched a new company that would offer pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services for employers. With the COVID-19 pandemic weighing severely on people’s emotional and physical wellbeing, companies have been looking to broaden their offerings to support ...

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Dems Weigh Ditching Medicare Expansion And Paid Leave In Eleventh Hour Of Social Spending Talks

Democrats are haggling over whether to drop two of the most popular elements of their social spending bill as negotiations reach the zero hour, according to a half-dozen sources close to the discussions. While high-level talks on the $1 trillion-plus package are ongoing, lawmakers, staffers, advocates and lobbyists said that a plan to expand Medicare ...

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Lawmakers Clash Over Surprise Billing Law’s Implementation

At issue are parameters an arbiter should consider when determining payment a health plan and provider can’t determine on their own

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2 New PBM Launches Aim To Bring Greater Transparency To The Market

Two new pharmacy benefit management startups are aiming to inject greater price transparency into the market. The Purchaser Business Group on Health has announced Emsana Health, with its first business arm launching as EmsanaRx, a PBM. As PBGH is a coalition of 40 large employers, the company says its PBM solution is “built by employers, ...

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Dems Eye Slimmed-Down Drug Price Deal To Advance Social Spending Bill

Congressional Democrats are watering down — and may entirely drop — a plan to have the government directly negotiate some Medicare drug prices in order to help clinch a deal on their sweeping social spending package. Top Democrats have acknowledged for weeks that they’ve had to significantly weaken the plan in order to win over holdout centrist lawmakers. ...

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California First to Let Kids Add Parents to Insurance Plans

California is the first state to let some adult children add their parents as dependents on their insurance plans, a move advocates hope will cover the small population of people living in the country illegally who don't qualify for other assistance programs.

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