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.
California enacted a new law in 2016 requiring employers that do not already sponsor an employee-retirement plan to participate in a state-run retirement program called CalSavers. Employers with 5 or more employees (of any type – full time, part time, seasonal) must enroll in the program by June 30, 2022.
California’s unemployment rate held steady in January as the nation’s most populous state added 53,600 jobs in a sign the economy is slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Now, instead of relying on the market or the courts to keep health care prices in check, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to order the state’s hospitals, doctors’ offices and insurance companies to keep their costs below a certain level. If they don’t, the state could impose a hefty fine.
Sacramento-based Sutter Health successfully defeated a class-action lawsuit alleging that it had used its market power to negotiate higher rates from major insurers, thereby assuring inflated premiums for roughly 3 million employers and individuals. Jurors returned a verdict Friday in the antitrust trial before Federal Magistrate Laurel Beeler in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. ...
Millions of Californians face the prospect of losing health coverage this year as federal measures that vastly expanded the ranks of the insured amid the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire this year.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, he promised to lower prescription drug costs for all Californians. But now, as Newsom nears the end of his first term, his ambitious ideas — such as requiring California to make its own insulin and forging drug partnerships across state lines — have failed to get off ...
Federal health officials who reported that nearly half of Californians live in “high-risk” counties for COVID-19 were relying on old data, and only a small number of counties now fall into that category, according to local officials. At stake is whether counties considered high risk should keep indoor masking requirements under new guidance from the ...
California’s mighty work-from-home economic engine continues to create massive value for workers, employers and entrepreneurs—and not incidentally for the state treasury. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst recently released an update to its budget forecast, estimating a revenue windfall for the upcoming budget of between $6 billion and $23 billion. This is on top of Governor Gavin ...
A federal judge has partially revived California’s “pay for delay” law, which prohibits pharmaceutical companies from paying competitors to keep generic drugs off the market. But the law’s author said the latest ruling would still allow companies to sidestep enforcement. The 2020 law, the first of its kind in the nation, was aimed at a ...
The board of Covered California has agreed to hire Jessica Altman — the Pennsylvania insurance commissioner — to succeed Peter Lee as CEO. Lee, the outgoing Covered California CEO, has been leading the public health insurance exchange for more than 10 years and helped oversee the launch of its website in late 2013. Lee announced plans ...