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Compliance

This section focuses on health care compliance and regulations – both national and state – including the ACA. It includes changes in health care law, regulation, and court decisions and their impact on health insurance professionals, employers, and individuals.

Bush ACA Replacement Plan Offers Tax Credits, More State Control

­ Jeb Bush’s Obamacare replacement plan offers tax credits, more state control – Modern Healthcare Modern Healthcare business news, research, data and events <iframe src=”//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-7TS2″ height=”0″ width=”0″ style=”display:none;visibility:hidden”></iframe> Republican presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush laid out a familiar plan Tuesday for replacing the Affordable Care Act. His plan focuses on catastrophic coverage ...

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Obama Administration Set Low Bar for Health Law Enrollment in 2016

The Obama administration is again dramatically scaling back projected enrollment in health plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act, predicting that about 10 million people will have coverage through the health law’s marketplaces by the end of next year. That is only a small increase over 2015, when 9.1 million Americans are expected to have ...

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Medicaid Spending Soars – Mostly In Expansion States

Medicaid spending soared nearly 14 percent last year—its biggest annual increase in at least two decades—as a result of millions of newly eligible low-income enrollees signing up under the Affordable Care Act, according to a report released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Total spending was highest in the 29 states that expanded Medicaid, the ...

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A Year of Change for Health Care in the Legislature

California made national news last week when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to patients who are terminally ill and want to die. But many quieter bills also will change health care in the state. The first half of the 2015-2016 legislative session ended last weekend ...

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Hopes Dim For Deal To Avert Medicare Premium Spikes

The window is closing for congressional leaders to avert the double-digit premium hikes that are set to hit 8 million Medicare enrollees next year. Congress has only a handful of weeks to prevent the 52 percent premium hikes — the largest in the program’s history — that will harm seniors and drain state budgets. And with ...

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No Ready-Made Rx For Rising Drug Costs

When Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of an older generic drug by more than 5,000 percent last month, the move sparked a public outcry. How, critics wondered, could a firm charge $13.50 a pill for a treatment for a parasitic infection one day and $750 the next? The criticism led Turing’s unapologetic CEO to say ...

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Aetna, Humana Shareholders Approve Proposed Merger

Health insurer Aetna’s proposed $37 billion acquisition of smaller rival Humana Inc was approved by the shareholders of both companies. The companies continue to expect the deal to close in the second half of 2016, they said in separate statements on Monday. Aetna in July said it would buy Humana to become the largest provider ...

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Little Growth Predicted on Health Exchanges

WASHINGTON — In a surprisingly pessimistic forecast, the Obama administration predicted on Thursday that health insurance enrollment on the Affordable Care Act’s public marketplaces will only inch up from current coverage levels by the end of 2016. After an elaborate analysis of demographic data, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said ...

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Insurance Commissioner Slams Aetna’s Small-Business Rate Hike

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones slammed Aetna Thursday for an “unreasonable” quarterly rate hike on small-business owners that brings the annual average increase to more than 27 percent. The hike affects small employers that renew their health insurance policies in the fourth quarter — and an estimated 40,000 employees. Dept. of Insurance actuaries reviewed Aetna’s ...

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Private Health Exchange Has Options for Small Companies Affected by New Mandate

CaliforniaChoice is bullish on expansion of the small-group market. Like its public counterpart, Covered California, the private insurance exchange is prepared to welcome employers with 51 to 100 employees into the program Jan. 1, 2016. California law still requires this group to be considered “small employers” for the purpose of health insurance, starting next year. ...

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