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.
A House Republican has introduced a new, expanded version of his Great American Healthcare proposal. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., filed a Great American Healthcare Act bill earlier this week. The bill is similar to the Great American Healthcare Plan bill that Burlison introduced in April. Like the earlier bill, the new Great American Healthcare bill ...
Medi-Cal cuts will strain hospitals already operating at a loss. The fallout: fewer services and higher costs for the privately insured too.
Aetna is happy with its employer plan business, but is not happy with the No Surprises Act independent dispute resolution system. Steven Nelson, the president of the CVS Health subsidiary, talked about the business today, during a conference call CVS held to go over results for the second quarter with securities analysts. In some recent ...
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to drastically change the childhood vaccine schedule by recommending shots be administered in separate visits to the doctor’s office. The executive order acts on Trump’s long-held belief that splitting up routine childhood vaccinations across multiple visits lessens the risk of acquiring autism. Scientists have found no credible risk ...
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) blasted an executive order President Trump signed Monday that splits the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot across three separate visits. “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” Cassidy wrote on social platform X shortly ...
On July 16, CMS published a significant Request for Information (RFI) to assess potential reforms to overhaul the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Current Procedural Terminology® (CPT®) coding system. The RFI was included in the Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule (CMS-1848-P). Concerns about Conflicts, Patient Care, and Innovation The RFI cites “longstanding concerns” ...
A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls ...
A coalition of attorneys general from 21 states, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, have filed a lawsuit challenging a federal rule that they allege undermines the Affordable Care Act and makes health insurance more expensive and harder to obtain for millions of Americans. The lawsuit seeks to block provisions of the Trump administration’s ACA ...
The Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Erica Schwartz, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, ending a nearly yearlong period without a Senate-confirmed director leading the agency. Schwartz was confirmed in a 51-44 vote, with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) joining Republicans in support. All other Democrats opposed the nomination. Despite a ...
Specialty drug trend remains high, although it decreased from 11.2% to 10.8% on a gross cost basis in Pharmacy Strategies Group’s 2026 State of Specialty Spend and Trend Report. Claim utilization is now the dominant driver of specialty drug trend as the percentage of members using specialty drugs rose to 5.5%. “For a decade, this report ...