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.
When Henry Genung was 4 months old, doctors cut a hole in his windpipe and inserted a tube to help him breathe. Born with a rare genetic mutation that blocked his upper airway, Henry, who is now 18 months old, will need the tube for several more years. For three months, Henry hasn’t had a ...
When Greta Christina fell into a deep depression five years ago, she called up her therapist in San Francisco. She’d had a great connection with the provider when she needed therapy in the past. She was delighted to learn that he was now “in network” with her insurance company, meaning she wouldn’t have to pay ...
Open enrollment for the nation’s largest state-run health insurance marketplace began Monday and runs through the end of January. Covered California sells individual health insurance plans to people who can’t get coverage through their job. Some people, depending on how much money they make, are eligible for deep discounts on their monthly premiums. Even families ...
The California Association of Health Underwriters recently submitted comments to the Healthy California For All Commission regarding several health insurance policy areas that the state seeks to regulate. The stated goal of the Healthy California For All Commission is to “develop a plan for advancing progress toward achieving a health care delivery system for California that provides ...
California has given away at least $20 billion to criminals in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said Monday, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11% of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic.
Three months after Gov. Gavin Newsom required state workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing, his pledge that California government would lead by example has not been fulfilled: Many public agencies face low vaccination rates, and most state-run workplaces have failed to test unvaccinated employees. At the California Department of Forestry ...
California is the first state to let some adult children add their parents as dependents on their insurance plans, a move advocates hope will cover the small population of people living in the country illegally who don't qualify for other assistance programs.
The coming federal vaccine mandate could result in a wave of firings of employees who are reluctant to get the life-saving shots. That has many companies nervous that those jobs will be difficult to fill in a labor market where willing hands are increasingly hard to come by.
Health insurers must cover the cost of coronavirus tests under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that ensures Californians do not have to pay out-of-pocket fees or contend with prior authorization requirements, which have left some consumers with surprise medical bills and bureaucratic headaches. Federal and state laws were passed during the pandemic ...
California in August gave the state’s health care workers an ultimatum: Get vaccinated by Sept. 30 or submit to twice-weekly COVID-19 testing. So far, it appears to be working. Three major Sacramento-area health care systems say vaccination rates among employees are now higher than the general population. “It’s more than good, it’s very good,” said Dr. ...