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.
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 ...
Pregnant and scared, Natasha Valle went to a Tennova Healthcare hospital in Clarksville, Tennessee, in January 2021 because she was bleeding. She didn’t know much about miscarriage, but this seemed like one. In the emergency room, she was examined then sent home, she said. She went back when her cramping became excruciating. Then home again. ...
There’s plenty of mystique tied to chocolate. Over the centuries, cocoa has been touted as an aphrodisiac and a health elixir. The Mayans even used cocoa as a form of cash and buried their aristocrats with it. It appears they believed that “it helped people get into the afterlife and survive in the afterlife,” says Nat Bletter, an ethnobotanist and chocolate-maker. ...
House Republicans on Monday began their promised scrutiny of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, requesting testimony from Anthony Fauci and current Biden administration officials, along with classified briefings and documents from US intelligence agencies. The new Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic essentially seeks to bring more emphasis to theories that the spread of ...
As many diabetics across the Golden State struggle with insulin costs, California’s efforts to make the medication more affordable have yet to yield results. This year, lawmakers will revisit legislation that would address at least one piece of the affordability puzzle.
California’s decision last month to cancel the results of a long-planned bidding competition among commercial health plans in its Medicaid program has some industry insiders and consumer advocates wondering whether the state can stand up to insurers and force improvements in care for millions of low-income beneficiaries.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday sued the six major companies that dominate the U.S. insulin market, ratcheting up the state’s assault on a profitable industry for artificially jacking up prices and making the indispensable drug less accessible for diabetes patients.
On June 30, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom approved SB 184, the California Healthcare Quality and Affordability Act, a far-reaching law that will have a significant impact on the delivery and payment for healthcare services in California.
California has awarded managed care plan contracts to five insurers to serve Medicaid beneficiaries across 21 counties in the state in 2024.