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.
American workers saw their out-of-pocket medical costs jump again this year, as the average deductible for an employer-provided health plan surged nearly 9% in 2015 to more than $1,000, a major new survey of employers shows. The annual increase, though lower than in previous years’, far outpaced wage growth and overall inflation and marked the continuation ...
Hillary Rodham Clinton is outlining a sweeping plan to hold down the rising cost of prescription drugs and target drug companies that flood the airwaves with ads. The Democratic presidential candidate says at a forum in Iowa that she wants to protect consumers while promoting innovation and putting an end to profiteering in the pharmaceutical ...
Prime Healthcare, which backed out of its proposed bid to buy six Daughters of Charity Health System hospitals, including two in the Southland, after disagreeing with conditions imposed on the sale sued the state’s attorney general Monday for allegedly abusing her constitutional powers. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Prime Healthcare ...
In a significant yardstick of how health care coverage has blanketed the country under the Affordable Care Act, California ranked among states recording the biggest drop – 4.7 percent – in uninsured residents from 2013 to 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Wednesday. The new data confirm California has seen “one of the ...
On Tuesday, CMS said it will enforce the Affordable Care Act’s cap on annual out-of-pocket health care spending for individuals, regardless of whether consumers have an individual or family health plan, Modern Healthcare reports. Background In February, CMS released a wide-ranging final rule for the health insurance exchanges that finalized several consumer and insurer protections. ...
Lifting some of the secrecy surrounding California healthcare, state officials unveiled a website where consumers can look up average prices for common medical procedures — as well as quality scores for providers. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, consumer advocates and researchers hailed the online tool launched Monday as the first step in prying more detailed ...
Late last month, the Nevada Health Co-op became the third casualty among 23 insurance start-ups created under the federal health care law to inject competition for coverage in certain parts of the country. Set up as nonprofits with consumer-led boards, the co-ops were designed to provide affordable insurance coverage to individuals and small businesses. They ...
The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange will not operate brick-and-mortar enrollment stores during this year’s sign-up period for government-subsidized health insurance. “It wasn’t fiscally prudent to walk in that direction,” Bruce Gilbert, executive director of the exchange, told board members at a meeting Thursday. Last year, the exchange opened two enrollment stores — one in ...
California’s pharmacists would be required to provide prescription drug labels or medication instructions in five languages besides English under a bill passed unanimously Thursday by California lawmakers. The bill, AB 1073, will be sent to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature and would take effect Jan. 1 if signed into law. Upon request from patients ...
On Tuesday, the California Senate voted 24-15 to approve a bill (AB 305) that would prohibit medical problems primarily affecting women from being considered pre-existing conditions when calculating workers’ compensation benefits, the AP/Washington Times reports. The bill now returns to the Assembly for a final vote. Details of AB 305 According to state Sen. Marty ...