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 is proposing a 2.8% decrease to physician payments in its newly released pay proposal for physicians, drawing near-immediate protest from the industry. Unveiled Wednesday afternoon, the calendar year 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule outlines new policies focused on primary care, preserved telehealth flexibilities and a strengthened Medicare Shared Savings Program ...
The Federal Trade Commission released a critical report detailing how pharmacy benefit managers—like CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth’s Group OptumRx, which manage 80% of American prescriptions—could be driving up the costs of some medications and favoring their own pharmacies at the expense of independent drug stores.
The Federal Trade Commission staff is having trouble getting information from the big pharmacy benefit managers, but it believes that the big PBMs may have too "outsized influence" over the U.S. pharmaceutical system and may be steering prescription revenue to their own pharmacies.
The Federal Trade Commission is preparing a lawsuit against the three largest drug intermediaries over their use of rebates for insulin and other drugs, according to a person familiar with the probe. The agency has been investigating whether the rebate practices of insulin manufacturers and three pharmacy benefit managers — units of CVS Health Corp., ...
Congress will have to decide soon whether to continue a big, temporary increase in premium tax credit subsidies for Affordable Care Act public exchange plan coverage. If it lapses could increase enrollment in employer-sponsored coverage by millions.
A proposed rule that would require the nation's most critical industries to more quickly report cyberattacks is raising the ire of the health care industry, which claims the new directives could actually hinder its response in a crisis.
The federal agency that oversees HealthCare.gov now expects to work with about 90,000 agents and brokers each year, up from 54,000 in 2021.
A landmark Supreme Court decision that reins in federal agencies’ authority is expected to hold dramatic consequences for the nation’s healthcare system, calling into question government rules on anything from consumer protections for patients to drug safety to nursing home care. The June 28 decision overturns a 1984 precedent that said courts should give deference ...
We’re offering more Tech Team Updates this month on news you can use concerning Ease and Employee Navigator. It’s the online enrollment platform for health insurance brokers working in the 2-250 employee marketplace. Employee Navigator Update: As you know, Ease is being acquired by and integrated with Employee Navigator. The merged organization will support more than ...
Amazon is betting big on its pharmacy arm, with the retail giant aiming to bring its focus on ease of use for consumers to the prescription drug space. The company first unveiled Amazon Pharmacy in late 2020 on the heels of its 2018 acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack. John Love, president of Amazon Pharmacy, told ...