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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.

Kaiser Permanente Reports Data Breach Impacting 13.4M Health Plan Members

Kaiser Permanente has begun notifying millions of its health plan members that the company was hit with a data breach in mid-April, according to a filing with the feds.

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FTC’s New Ban On Noncompetes Has Big Impact On Health Care Industry

Although the FTC estimates that the final rule will increase health care worker earnings by $300 million annually, the American Hospital Association highlighted retention difficulties in the for-profit portion of the hospital sector.

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Big Pharma And Pharmacy Benefit Managers Sued For Insulin Price-Fixing

The health fund for the International Union of Operating Engineers is suing Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, as well as CVS Health and other PBMs, for "drastically" increasing the price of life-saving meds for "illicit profits."

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Drugmakers, Hospitals Spar Over New 340B Drug Discount ‘Dispute Resolution’ Process

The new dispute resolution process is designed to use government officials to oversee disagreements, however, lobby group PhRMA said the new process "panders to 340B hospitals" while ignoring drugmakers' concerns.

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FTC Chief Says Tech Advancements Risk Health Care Price Fixing

New technologies are making it easier for companies to fix prices and discriminate against individual consumers, the Biden administration’s top consumer watchdog said Tuesday. Algorithms make it possible for companies to fix prices without explicitly coordinating with one another, posing a new test for regulators policing the market, said Lina Khan, chair of the Federal ...

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Walgreens Launches Specialty Pharmacy Unit To Compete In New PBM Era

Walgreens (WBA) is standing up a new specialty pharmacy segment to compete in an increasingly crowded pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) and specialty pharmacy space.

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California’s New Health Insurance Bills In 2024

In California, more than 2,100 bills were introduced for consideration by lawmakers in the second year of our 2023-2024 legislative session. For a bill to become law, it must pass through both the state Senate and Assembly, typically requiring a majority vote.

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CalChamber-Led Coalition Opposing State-Run Health Care System

A large and diverse coalition of 150 California business representatives have joined a CalChamber-led coalition in strong opposition to AB 2200 (Kalra; D-San Jose), a job killer bill, that would create an expensive government bureaucracy to finance a state-run health care system.

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Federal Agencies Open Online Portal For Reporting Anticompetitive Practices In Healthcare

Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unveiled HealthyCompetition.gov, an online portal where anyone can submit a healthcare competition complaint for potential investigation.

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Ten Things to Know About Consolidation in Health Care Provider Markets

Mergers and acquisitions involving hospitals and other health care providers are drawing attention from federal and state regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, and policymakers amid concerns that such consolidations can reduce competition and contribute to the high costs of health care. A new KFF brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation among health care providers ...

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