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.
Employers trying to rein in rising health costs are also taking the fight directly to health care providers. Why it matters: New transparency around the price of health care services and workers’ mounting frustration with costs are emboldening some employers to get tough in negotiations with hospitals and provider groups. “We can improve quality and can make health care more ...
Dr. Rebecca Mishuris remembers her mother, also a doctor, bringing home her patients’ medical charts every night and working on them long after she’d gone to bed. For years, Mishuris, a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, repeated the ritual herself. But no more. Since last summer, she’s been piloting two competing software ...
The federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) will mark its 50th anniversary this year, after being signed into law by President Gerald Ford on September 2, 1974. As modern business practices evolve far beyond the 1970s landscape that initially established ERISA, lawmakers are now considering significant changes to align the law with today’s challenges ...
The Retirement Security Rule, finalized on April 23, is polarizing and is sure to face significant legal challenges (one lawsuit has already been filed), because the rule applies a new, heightened fiduciary duty to the insurance industry.
The Reducing Drug Prices for Seniors Act would require prescription drug coinsurance payments for seniors on Medicare to be determined based on the lower net price of the medication, rather than its higher list price, according to Rosen’s office.
According to the DOL, the new fiduciary rule levels the playing field for insurance agents, brokers, financial planners and registered investment advisors to adhere to a best interest standard when providing investment advice.
Walmart (WMT.N), said on Tuesday it will close all 51 of its health clinics and shut its virtual health care operations, saying it could not see it as a sustainable business model to continue.
As concerns continue to be raised about consumer barriers to care resulting from prior authorization requirements, the federal government issued a final regulation aimed at streamlining and automating the prior authorization process and improving transparency for certain payers.
President Joe Biden counts among his accomplishments the record-high number of people, more than 21 million, who enrolled in Obamacare plans this year. Behind the scenes, however, federal regulators are contending with a problem that affects people’s coverage: rogue brokers who have signed people up for Affordable Care Act plans, or switched them into new ...
Price transparency and the No Surprises Act are still in their infancy, but providers and health plans would be smart to comply now to avoid facing unnecessary penalties, warned President Trump’s former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a recent virtual summit. The former policymaker said the wheels set in motion during his ...