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.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Tim Noel offered investors a deeper look at the medical cost spike that’s plaguing the insurance giant’s finances. He said during the company’s earnings call Tuesday morning that pricing assumptions set by the company “were well short of actual medical costs” for 2025. UHC’s current outlook, he said, instead reflects an additional $6.5 ...
Some dental insurance issuers might be attracting employer customers with first-year prices that are too low to last. Amy Friedrich, president of the Benefits & Protection business at Principal Financial Group, talked about dental plan competition earlier this week during a conference call with securities analysts. “We are definitely seeing new-sales rates that are competitive,” Friedrich said. ...
The Trump administration is now accepting applications for a pilot program to demo rebates for 340B drugs that drugmakers have said are necessary to reduce abuse of the decades-old subsidy program. Announced Thursday by the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the pilot would swap out traditional upfront ...
The prior authorization process is in the spotlight as the majority of Americans say delays and denials of services and treatments by health insurance companies are a major problem. This sentiment is shared across demographic groups, political affiliations and income levels, according to a KFF survey. About half of insured adults have had to get ...
HSAs accounted for nearly 18% of total commercial health plan enrollment in 2024, including group health plans and individual health insurance.
CVS Health, the parent of Aetna, likes its employer health plan business but is taking a tough approach to pricing, a company executive said Friday.
The new numbers will affect what some employers owe if employees apply, and get, federal premium subsidies.
When medical insurance provider Centene (CNC) opened its books to investors on Friday, the company reported a surprising loss and an uptick in usage. The latter is a broader problem for the industry. In the second quarter, Centene reported an adjusted loss of $79 million and a “health benefits ratio” of 93%. Its benefits ratio, or the ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published its preliminary technical Medicare Part D bid information for the 2026 contract year, with updates intended to limit significant increases in cost-sharing and premium hikes. The changes in how CMS approves certain standalone prescription drug plan (PDP) sponsors have resulted in the first-ever rejections of standalone PDP bids. ...
The European Union’s trade deal with the United States could cost the pharmaceutical industry between $13 billion and $19 billion as branded medicines become subject to a tariff of 15%, analysts said on Monday. The added costs could raise prices for consumers unless pharmaceutical companies take action to mitigate the impact of the tariffs, one of the ...