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.
Dr. Timothy McAvoy, an internist from Waukesha, Wisconsin, held his infant granddaughter Tuesday while standing in the Longworth House Office Building, waiting to talk to a congressional aide about increasing Medicare pay for doctors. Facing a highly partisan Congress where Republicans have vowed to cut federal spending, McAvoy hoped his Midwestern charm, along with a ...
The U.S. health department proposed on Tuesday three new pilot projects aimed at lowering prescription drug prices for people enrolled in government health insurance plans, including offering some essential generic drugs for $2 a month.
The number of people with medical debt on their credit reports fell by 8.2 million — or 17.9% — between 2020 and 2022, according to a report Tuesday from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. White House officials said in a separate draft report that the two-year drop likely stems from their policies. Among the ...
High deductible health plan (HDHP) enrollment hit a record high in 2021, with nearly six out of ten employer-sponsored health plan members enrolled in a high deductible health plan, according to a ValuePenguin survey.
As it continues to build out its portfolio of businesses, Cigna is updating the branding for its subsidiaries. The overall holding company will now operate as the Cigna Group, according to an announcement issued Monday. The new name better reflects the company's broader reach and its ambitions to continue to grow.
A bipartisan coalition of senators sent letters to three telehealth companies requesting more information regarding their data-sharing practices.
The Federal Trade Commission’s skepticism of tech-fueled healthcare mergers could spell trouble for Amazon and One Medical, experts say. For years, the FTC has tried to thwart mergers between large hospital systems. Recent action reveals its focus could be widening to include mergers involving digital health providers and big tech companies.
Time is running out for free-to-consumer COVID vaccines, at-home test kits, and even some treatments. The White House announced this month that the national public health emergency, first declared in early 2020 in response to the pandemic, is set to expire May 11. When it ends, so will many of the policies designed to combat the virus’s spread. ...
President Joe Biden focused on infrastructure, supporting the middle class, protecting Medicare and Social Security and what he called a “blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America” in his 1-hour and 13-minute State of the Union speech last night. In the longest section of the speech devoted to healthcare, which occurred at about the halfway point, he called for expanding the ...
The notion that people will regularly use computers to diagnose their own illnesses has been discussed for decades. Of course, millions of people try to do that today, consulting Dr. Google, though often with little success. Given the low quality of many online health sources, such searches may even be harmful. Some governments have even launched “Don’t ...