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 and the federal government agreed in concept Saturday on a $6.2-billion deal to reform the Medicaid program and to help pay for care of the low-income population. The largest share of the funds – nearly $3.3 billion – is aimed at helping public hospitals improve the safety and quality of patient care. The plan, ...
We know obesity increases your risk of having high blood pressure, getting diabetes and being diagnosed with certain cancers. Now it turns out it can also increase costs for your state government. A study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs found that medical care associated with severe obesity cost state-run health programs $8 billion in 2013. California’s program for the ...
The head of California’s health insurance exchange toured Los Angeles by bus Sunday, seeking to publicize the Affordable Care Act’s potential benefits among Southern Californians, many of them Latino, who officials say have failed to take advantage of the law. On the first day of this year’s open-enrollment period for federally subsidized health plans, the ...
The scramble is on for up to 500 temporary call-center workers to answer questions and help enroll consumers in Covered California. Virginia-based Faneuil Inc., in partnership with InSync Consulting Services in Roseville, won a $12 million contract for the business early this month. Open enrollment starts Sunday at Covered California and runs through Jan. 31, ...
Nevada saw the sharpest decline of any state in the rate of uninsured children from 2013 to 2014, according to a report released Wednesday. However, the Silver State still remains among the five states with the highest uninsured rate in the country with a 9.6 percent, or 63,732 children, in 2014, the Georgetown University’s Center ...
Two years into the grand experiment of setting up Nevada’s first health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act, the state is banking on one hard-earned prize after surviving its tumultuous launch: normalcy. The switch to a hybrid health exchange last year paid off for the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange in the form of ...
When the health insurance marketplaces open on Sunday, consumers shopping for 2016 coverage may encounter steeper premium increases than last year and more plans that offer no out-of-network coverage. According to an analysis released Monday evening by the Health and Human Services Department, the cost of the second-lowest silver plan in states using the federal ...
Premiums are expected to rise in many parts of the country as a new sign-up season under President Barack Obama’s health care law starts Nov. 1. But consumers have options if they shop around, and an upgraded government website will help them compare. Consumers can see their own premiums for 2016 starting Sunday night on ...
A pharmaceutical firm’s recent decision to hike the cost of a prescription drug that treats foodborne illness from $18 to $750 per tablet outraged millions of Americans. The move prompted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to accuse the Swiss-American company Turing of “price gouging.” The following day, Clinton unveiled her national plan to rein in ...
Heading into Obamacare’s third open enrollment starting Nov. 1, uninsured Californians know more about the stick of federal tax penalties than the carrot of premium subsidies. Officials at the Covered California exchange say that’s a problem because consumers regularly cite high costs as the reason they don’t sign up. Survey data released Thursday show that ...