Author: Scott Welch
Greater investment in primary care is linked to better quality care and fewer hospital visits, a new study of California health plans has found. The study, released by the California Health Care Foundation, “Investing in Primary Care: Why It Matters for Californians with Commercial Coverage,” was sponsored by a coalition of groups and looked at data from ...
On April 21, 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) approved a third readoption of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) to replace the current version, which is set to expire on May 6, 2022.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), launched as part of the federal government’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to aid to small businesses coping with the impact of COVID-19, ended on May 31, 2021. However, nearly 350,000 small businesses that received a PPP loan have not had their loans forgiven. Another 380,000 loans ...
Something strange happened between the time Linda Griffith signed up for a new Medicare prescription drug plan during last fall’s enrollment period and when she tried to fill her first prescription in January. She picked a Humana drug plan for its low prices, with help from her longtime insurance agent and Medicare’s Plan Finder, an ...
Most employers are putting a focus on managing healthcare costs coming out of the pandemic, a new survey shows. Analysts at WTW polled 636 employers representing 10 million workers and found that 94% are naming healthcare costs a top priority over the next two years. A close second was enhancing mental health benefits, with 87% calling it ...
Compensation for American workers increased rapidly in the first quarter, as a tight labor market put more money in workers’ pockets while keeping inflation under control. Without adjusting for seasonality, business and government employers spent 4.5 percent more on worker costs in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, according to ...
In 2023, you can save up to $3,850 with an individual health insurance plan, up from $3,650 in 2022, the IRS announced Friday. And you can soon contribute up to $7,750 with a family plan, boosted from $7,300.
After months of declining numbers, California has recorded a nearly 30% increase in coronavirus cases over the last week along with smaller rises in hospitalizations, causing some health officials to suspect that the state is headed into a new pandemic wave. The increase coincides with a loosening of COVID-19 restrictions such as mask mandates and ...
California’s population declined again in 2021 for the second consecutive year, state officials said Monday, the result of a slowdown in births and immigration coupled with an increase in deaths and people leaving the state.
In an era of rising inflation and trillion-dollar deficits, there appears to be growing bipartisan support for fiscal restraint. President Biden’s recent budget proposal featured more than $1 trillion in deficit-reducing policies. And his administration is now promising that the proposals once comprising the president’s Build Back Better agenda will be, at worst, deficit neutral. But despite ...