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.
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 0.6 points in May to 95.3, remaining below its 52-year average of 98.0. The Uncertainty Index rose 3 points from April to 91, remaining well above its historical average of 68. As reported in NFIB’s monthly Jobs Report, the NFIB Small Business Employment Index remained essentially flat, registering 100.3 in May. ...
President Trump on Friday announced that over 100 prescription medications would be added to his administration’s direct-to-consumer drug platform, TrumpRx, the second expansion of the initiative in as many months. “I am pleased to announce that TrumpRx.gov is adding another 160 Prescription Drugs, at highly discounted prices, for a new total of over 800 of the most commonly-used Prescription Drugs,” ...
GLP-1 drugs are a double-edged sword for the nation’s employers. Although they are having a demonstrable effect on workplace health, the high cost is putting a strain on their budgets. GLP-1s, known by brand names such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or Zepbound, originally were developed to help regulate blood sugar in people with Type 2 ...
A Trump administration initiative to impose $100,000 fees on employers seeking visas for skilled foreign workers amounts to an unlawful tax on those companies and must be voided “in its entirety,” a federal judge ruled on Monday. The decision by Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts nullified ...
Having a baby in the United States is about to get more complicated. Under new billing codes that take effect in January, doctors who manage maternity care will start charging à la carte for visits and services related to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care. It’s an about-face from recent years, when doctors have often received ...
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous ruling Thursday that could help increase the number of generic drugs available in the United States. The court ruled in favor of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, a company that wants to sell a generic version of Vascepa, a brand-name drug from Amarin Pharmaceuticals, using a “skinny label” government drug approval label. ...
There are 2 million fewer children enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program compared to January 2025, according to a new report. The Children and Families at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy operates a state-by-state enrollment tracker that identified the declines through April, and warned that enrollment drop-offs at this scale should ...
One in five adults with private insurance coverage said that they or a family member had a medical service denied in the past year, even though it was recommended by their physician. The Commonwealth Fund released its 2025 Affordability Survey and the results of focus groups on the subject, which found that 8% of coverage ...
U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pursuing federal government access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism — a connection the medical establishment studied for decades and flatly rejects. The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking data from little-known state systems that ...
The IRS has released the 2027 contribution limits for health savings accounts, or HSAs, which offer triple-tax benefits for investors. Starting in 2027, the new HSA contribution limit will be $4,500 for self-only plans, up from $4,400 in 2026, based on the latest inflation adjustments. The HSA limit for family coverage will also rise in 2027. That cap will jump to $9,000, ...