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 Trump administration cancelled $2 billion of research grants to University of California professors. Their legal team says it has proof that those terminations were unconstitutional.
The number of Nevadans enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans has fallen 12.5 percent in the months since an open enrollment period closed this January — a dropoff that’s double what the state saw last year and suggests higher prices and reduced subsidies were too much for some consumers to afford. Nevada — and the ...
GLP-1 drugs could lead to cost savings for workers and their employers by reducing employee sick leave, a new economic study finds. Researchers found that patients who used the drugs, sold under brand names including Ozempic and Wegovy, took 17% less long-term sick leave than people who didn’t use the medications. The study defines long-term sick leave ...
Employers are bracing for what could be the highest rise in health insurance premiums in 16 years in 2027, driving up the average cost of family coverage in California to more than $30,000 — the price of a new compact car. Health insurance companies expect the cost of medical services and prescription drugs to soar ...
The fate of the state’s $2 billion plan to maintain health insurance for low-income and disabled Californians is now in the hands of Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor and Republican administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. State Republicans appealed directly to Oz in a letter on Monday, asking him to reject Gov. ...
A new report suggests small businesses are losing talented employees because management isn’t offering benefits that actually fit workers’ needs and priorities. “Today’s workforce needs aren’t one-size-fits-all anymore, but many small businesses still feel forced into one-size-fits-all benefits,” according to the “Small Business ‘Bene-Fit’ Gap Report” from Justworks, a cloud-based HR and payroll platform for ...
With midterm elections now less than four months away, cost tops the list of voters’ health care concerns, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll found. Half of all voters, including 6 in 10 Democrats and 55% of independents, said this issue is extremely important for candidates to talk about. At the same time, more than ...
As the Trump administration’s January deadline looms for states to enforce new Medicaid work requirements, some state lawmakers are turning the tables by pushing to publicly name the largest companies that have employees enrolled in the government program covering low-income and disabled people. California lawmakers seek to revive an expired law that would require the state to ...
A federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Maryland temporarily blocked several provisions of a recently finalized rule that would change Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces beginning July 20. The lawsuit was filed in June by a group of municipalities: Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; Baltimore and Pima County, Arizona—as well as Doctors for America and the Main Street Alliance. ...
Industry giant UnitedHealthcare is adding its voice to the chorus of insurers criticizing the current state of the No Surprises Act’s independent dispute resolution process. During the company’s earnings call on Thursday morning, company executives pointed to IDR as a drag on its commercial business. Dan Kueter, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual, said during ...