Industry Updates
This broad category includes articles concerning health insurance costs, carrier and health plan news, changing benefits technology, and surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others on employee benefits.
The Biden administration announced a final rule on Monday meant to expand access and lower costs for care for mental health and substance use disorders. Most provisions in the rule will apply to group health plans and health insurance issuers for plan years starting January 1 or after. Under this rule, mental health and substance use ...
At least two in five U.S. adults — or more than 57 million people – under the age of 65 with “private insurance could be eligible under clinical criteria for GLP-1 drugs,” a new analysis shows. KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that 42% of U.S. adults could be covered by health insurers ...
Even as federal aid poured into state budgets in response to the covid-19 pandemic, public health leaders warned of a boom-and-bust funding cycle on the horizon as the emergency ended and federal grants sunsetted. Now, that drought has become reality and state governments are slashing budgets that feed local health departments.
Triumphant music plays as cancer patients go camping, do some gardening, and watch fireworks in ads for Opdivo+Yervoy, a combination of immunotherapies to treat metastatic melanoma and lung cancer. Ads for Skyrizi, a medicine to treat plaque psoriasis and other illnesses, show patients snorkeling and riding bikes — flashing their rash-free elbows. People with Type 2 diabetes ...
Rebates granted by pharmaceutical manufacturers to insurers reduce the actual prices paid by insurers, causing the true prices of prescriptions to diverge from official statistics.
Rite Aid will operate as a private company after it successfully completed its financial restructuring and emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the U.S. drugstore chain said on Tuesday. The pharmacy has used its bankruptcy to close hundreds of stores, sell its pharmacy benefit company Elixir, and negotiate settlements with its lenders, drug distribution partner McKesson (MCK.N), ...
There’s no shortage of attention on rising pharmaceutical costs, but policymakers need to have the full picture of trends in this space to work off of, according to a new study. Researchers at the Bureau of Economic Analysis wanted to account for the role the pharmacy benefit manager-negotiated rebates play in drug pricing trends. They compared ...
The U.S. government’s first-ever negotiated prices for prescription drugs are still on average more than double, and in some cases five times, what drugmakers have agreed to in four other high-income countries, a Reuters review has found. The U.S. Medicare health plan, which covers more than 67 million people, recently unveiled new maximum prices, opens new ...
Small and midsize employers' efforts to start their own health plans have collided with regulatory and market reality. The percentage of U.S. employers with fewer than 100 employees that self-insure at least one health plan fell to 16% in 2023.
The Word & Brown Companies today was named in the annual Best Places to Work in Insurance program, which recognizes employers for their outstanding performance in establishing workplaces where employees can thrive, enjoy their work, and help their companies grow.