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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.

End of Covid Emergency Will Usher in Changes Across the US Health System

The Biden administration’s decision to end the covid-19 public health emergency in May will institute sweeping changes across the health care system that go far beyond many people having to pay more for covid tests. In response to the pandemic, the federal government in 2020 suspended many of its rules on how care is delivered. That transformed ...

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Providers Want CMS To Create New Payment Methods To Boost Primary Care

A collection of nearly 30 provider groups wants the Biden administration to combine fee-for-service and prospective payments to primary care doctors to bolster the workforce. The groups wrote a letter to officials with the (PDF) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the need for such a hybrid payment model. The missive comes as CMS has ...

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White House To Disband COVID-19 Team In May

The Biden administration is set to disband the White House COVID-19 response team in May after the public health emergency ends. The team was created by the Trump administration in February 2020 and played a prominent role in Trump’s final and Biden’s first years as president, particularly under Dr. Anthony Fauci’s leadership. However, as the pandemic fades from the headlines, the team is set ...

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Mental Health Startup Cerebral Admits Sharing Health Data With Facebook, Google, TikTok

Telehealth mental health startup Cerebral — after receiving a formal request from the federal government — admitted to sharing the private health information of more than 3.1 million patients in the United States with several advertisers and social media platforms. According to the company’s “Notice of HIPAA Privacy Breach,” the data disclosed “varied depending on what actions individuals took ...

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After ambitious single-payer healthcare plans sputter, a new California bill tries an incremental approach

Gov. Gavin Newsom would face new deadlines on his administration’s work to revamp the state’s health care system under a bill scheduled to be introduced Tuesday in the state Legislature.

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Biden Signs Legislation To Declassify Certain Intelligence On Covid Pandemic Origins

President Joe Biden on Monday signed legislation requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information on any possible links between a lab in China and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The House and the Senate unanimously passed the legislation earlier this month. The push to make public classified information on the origins ...

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Some Small Businesses Could Face Significantly Higher Taxes This Year

Taxes are one of the most significant expenses for many small businesses, so when the government changes tax laws, it can have a big impact. The good news for 2023 is that it seems unlikely that there will be any major tax legislation coming our way. However, thanks to some of the expiring provisions from ...

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U.S. Sues Rite Aid For Missing Opioid Red Flags

The U.S. government on Monday sued Rite Aid Corp (RAD.N), accusing the pharmacy chain of missing “red flags” as it illegally filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances, including opioids. In a complaint filed in Cleveland federal court, the Department of Justice said Rite Aid repeatedly filled prescriptions from May 2014 to June 2019 ...

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FDA’s Robert Califf Calls On Insurers To Help Providers Participate In Critical Clinical Drug Trials

Insurers must do more to help providers participate in clinical trials that can confirm the effectiveness of drugs granted accelerated approval, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D., told a room full of payer executives Thursday. Califf spoke about how to improve the accelerated approval process during a session at the AHIP 2023 Medicare, ...

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EBRI, Commonwealth Study Finds That Support For Employer-Based Health Benefits Remains Strong

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, one of the main concerns — which was often used to argue against passage of the health care reform bill — was that Americans would stop enrolling in employer-based plans and instead jump to the government-controlled ACA marketplace.

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