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.
State lawmakers last week convened the first hearing of a governor-ordered legislative special session on health care funding.
California insurers have received nearly $1.2 billion through the Affordable Care Act's reinsurance program, according to a Covered California analysis of a recent CMS report, Business Insurance reports (Geisel, Business Insurance, 7/6).
On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a $167.6 billion state budget that includes funding to expand Medi-Cal to undocumented children, as well as other health care implications, the Los Angeles Times‘ “PolitiCal” reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program. The budget will take effect July 1 (Megerian, “PolitiCal,” Los Angeles Times, 6/24). Background on Budget ...
After the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled to uphold Affordable Care Act subsidies to help U.S. residents purchase coverage through the federal exchange, the GOP could turn to budget reconciliation as part of its efforts to repeal the law, National Journalreports (Scott/Johnson, National Journal, 6/25). Background The subsidies were challenged in the case King v. ...
SACRAMENTO — The controversial bill that would give California one of the country’s strictest vaccination laws headed on Monday to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, with supporters urging him to sign it and opponents promising to stand vigil around the clock to convince him to veto it. On Monday, a majority of the California state Senate ...
SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — A new analysis and infographic released today estimate California’s exposure to high-priced Hepatitis C medications could range from hundreds of millions of dollars, even if only 5 percent of Californians infected with Hepatitis C receive treatment through state programs. The analysis, which looks at the costly impact of ...
If the physician networks for plans sold on the health law’s online insurance exchanges were T-shirts, more than 40 percent would be size X-small or small. That’s the takeaway from a new study that analyzed nearly 400 physician networks in silver-level plans sold around the country in 2014. The study labeled 11 percent of plans ...
A state panel expanded health care coverage Thursday for undocumented immigrants and other low-income residents of 35 rural counties, including Yolo and El Dorado counties in the Sacramento region. The move by the County Medical Services Program board promises to fill in health access gaps for people who don’t qualify for low-income health coverage through ...
The U.S. official overseeing Obamacare said on Friday she has not seen any indication that states will back away from running their own health insurance marketplaces now that the Supreme Court has validated the federal insurance exchange. Sylvia Burwell, secretary of Health and Human Services, also said she expected enrollment in both the state and ...
Donna Miles didn’t feel like getting dressed and driving to her physician’s office or to a retailer’s health clinic near her Cincinnati home. For several days, she had thought she had thrush, a mouth infection that made her tongue sore and discolored with raised white spots. When Miles, 68, awoke on a wintry February morning ...