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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.

Pharmacy Benefit Manager Fiduciary Bill Arrives With Bipartisan Support

Lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that could apply Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary requirements to employer health plans’ pharmacy benefit managers. The bill, the PBM Fiduciary, Accountability, Integrity and Reform Act, or PBM FAIR Act, would add a PBM fiduciary section to ERISA section 3(21), according to a version of the text posted by Sen. Roger ...

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Deal To Extend Obamacare Subsidies Faces Uphill Battle Despite GOP Optimism

A key GOP senator is expressing optimism that Republicans and Democrats will agree to a deal that would extend expiring health care subsidies, but the effort faces an uphill climb in winning the backing of leaders in both parties. Without a deal, health insurance premiums are projected to spike by double digits next month, yet ...

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Emerging GLP-1 Drugs Are Reshaping Employers’ 2026 Priorities

With escalating medical and pharmacy costs as a primary motivator, employers are moving health care benefit cost-containment to the top of their overall priorities for 2026, according to a new survey. In last year’s edition of Brown & Brown’s Employee Health and Benefits Strategy report, employers ranked “attracting and retaining a healthy and engaged workforce” as ...

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Rural Health Transformation Program Awards Announced—Here’s Who’s Getting The Most In FY2026

Texas and Alaska will receive the largest amount of funding from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program in fiscal year 2026, while New Jersey and Connecticut will see the least, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday. All 50 states had submitted applications to the federal government in November outlining plans to improve ...

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2025 Year In Review: From The GLP-1 Boom To The One Big Beautiful Bill Act

The year 2025 was marked by major developments across health care, retirement, and corporate policy, shaping the landscape for employers, patients, and consumers alike. The health care sector saw significant shifts, including the rapid adoption of GLP‑1 weight‑loss therapies, which raised both hopes for long-term health improvements and concerns over rising pharmacy costs. Pharmaceutical distribution ...

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2026 Outlook: Uncertainty Clouds The Future On The ACA Exchanges

As the final days of 2025 slip away, Congress is poised to allow the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies to fully expire. The future of these tax credits and the impact they could have on enrollment was a headliner in healthcare in the back half of the year, and experts warn that it’s unclear what ...

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Trump Pressures Insurers To ‘Get Their Price Down’ Ahead Of 2026 Rate Hikes

President Donald Trump said he would convene insurance companies in the coming weeks in a bid to pressure them to reduce costs for Americans who will see their premiums rise following the expiration of Obamacare subsidies at year’s end. “I’m going to call a meeting of the insurance companies,” Trump told reporters on Friday at ...

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Trump Announces Lower Drug Price Deals With 9 Pharmaceutical Companies

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday that nine drugmakers have agreed to lower the cost of their prescription drugs in the U.S. Pharmaceutical companies Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi will now rein in Medicaid drug prices to match what they charged in other developed countries. As ...

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2026 Outlook: The Domino Effect Of Medicaid Cuts And The Hidden Costs For Healthcare

In July, the Trump administration passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, otherwise known as the budget reconciliation bill. The law, H.R. 1, has made waves for its historic nearly $1 trillion cut to federal Medicaid spending over 10 years. Healthcare stakeholders have been vocal opponents of the move. H.R. 1 brings the first-ever national work requirements to the ...

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Hakeem Jeffries Says Obamacare Subsidy Extension ‘Will Pass With A Bipartisan Majority’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday he remains confident that Congress will extend expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits despite persistent opposition from Republicans. In a Sunday morning interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” Jeffries dismissed Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s remarks that a clean three-year extension of the credits would be ...

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