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.
Shortages of several generic chemotherapy drugs are straining hospital supply chains and raising concerns that cancer centers may need to ration treatment for some patients, according to a June 24 New York Times report. Manufacturing problems, shipping delays and decisions by some companies to stop producing the medications have contributed to shortages of carboplatin, cisplatin, oxaliplatin and ...
Legislators this week approved a health tax bill meant to continue critical federal funding for the state’s Medicaid program, also known as Medi-Cal. Their approval comes despite warnings from health industry leaders that the tax, as designed, will raise premiums for privately insured Californians. New federal rules are forcing the state to restructure its managed ...
Officials in the administration of President Donald Trump want to change one of the foundations of the Affordable Care Act health insurance regulation framework. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is thinking about limiting a state’s ability to adjust its ACA essential health benefits package, or standard benefits package, to suit local needs. CMS ...
In a stunning reversal, Luigi Mangione ‘s lawyers told a judge Thursday that he will no longer be asserting a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The retraction came just a day after Mangione’s lawyers told Judge Gregory Carro that they planned to pursue a defense involving claims that ...
Starting in July, some Medicare beneficiaries will be able to access GLP-1 medications by paying one flat fee per month. The temporary program is set to run for a year-and-a-half through the end of 2027. But with less than two weeks before its launch, questions remain over how it will operate. The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, described by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as ...
Telehealth utilization increased 10.1% across the U.S. from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first three months of 2026, a new report from Fair Health found. Telehealth utilization, measured as a percentage of medical claim lines, increased from 5.01% of medical claim lines in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 5.51% in Q1 2026. The relative ...
Bill Curry, 65, raises cattle on the same land in rural Oklahoma once owned by his father and generations before him. Each quarter, for several years, he has made the 2½-hour drive to Oklahoma City for an epidural in his spine to treat his back pain. But this year, because of a new Medicare program, ...
Online portal messages sent to providers more than doubled between 2020 and 2025 as patients now have much more direct access to physicians. But there hasn’t been a corresponding drop-off in clinic visits as digital medicine is adding to clinicians’ workload rather than replacing in-person care, a new study finds. At least 12% of Americans ...
A cure for cancer could be on the horizon in the next decade, according to experts. During the WSJ Leadership Institute CEO Summit in London last week, Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato reflected on the pharmaceutical company’s projections on the future of cancer treatment. In the next 10 years, the goal is to “try ...
Twannetta Weaver felt like she made the responsible choice when she enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan through her employer, an option that avoided high premiums and allowed her to save for retirement. Then, in 2025, she slipped a disk in her back, requiring medication and physical therapy. Suddenly, the medical bills were so ...