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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.

Healthcare Tops U.S. Domestic Concerns as Overall Worry Declines, Gallup Finds

A new Gallup poll shows healthcare has returned as the leading domestic concern among Americans, with 61% reporting they worry “a great deal” about access and affordability. The finding places healthcare ahead of 15 other policy areas and marks a shift from recent years when economic issues dominated. Following healthcare, four economic concerns rank closely together, each ...

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2 More Pharmaceutical Companies, Abbvie And Genentech, To Officially Launch On TrumpRx

Two more drug-making giants will officially start selling popular commercial medications on the White House’s discounted pharmaceutical site as soon as Monday, CBS News exclusively learned. American pharmaceutical companies Abbvie and Genentech become the 10th and 11th companies to provide their prescriptions at a reduced rate on the “TrumpRx” site. Abbvie, which struck a deal ...

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HHS Vision on Catastrophic Plans Tests Legal, Industry Limits

The Trump administration’s bid to rewrite how catastrophic plans are structured under the Affordable Care Act is raising legal and actuarial questions, even as some policy professionals applaud the creativity aimed at solving rising premiums. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a proposed rule earlier this year that would allow catastrophic plans to design terms ...

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BCBS Association Asks CMS To Close Medicare Advantage Fraud Gaps, Regulate AI Coding Tools

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association submitted a wide-ranging letter to CMS on March 30 in response to the agency’s information request on its Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare, or CRUSH, initiative. Seven BCBSA recommendations: 1. CMS should notify Medicare Advantage plans in real time when it suspends payments to a provider over suspected ...

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CMS Gives Medicare Advantage Rates A 2.48% Bump For 2027 Plan Year In Final Rule

Following significant industry outcry over a proposal to keep Medicare Advantage rates largely flat in 2027, the Trump administration has bumped payments up slightly in the final policy. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initially proposed a 0.09% increase in rates as part of the MA and Part D Advance Notice. In the final rule, the increase ...

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Trump Administration Volatility Reaches Into Nevada Public Health Programs

The Trump Administration abruptly canceling – then perhaps reinstating or partially reinstating – federal health grants is creating overall “funding volatility” in state and local public health programs, officials told state lawmakers this week. The ongoing cuts and constant back-and-forth policy changes have confounded efforts to maintain state and local programs as well as retain ...

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Trump Administration Prepares Up To 100% Pharmaceutical Tariffs On Some Imported Drugs

The Trump administration is preparing to impose new tariffs on branded drugs from pharmaceutical companies that have not struck landmark deals with the president to lower their U.S. drug prices, CNBC has learned. Patented medications and their active ingredients would be hit with a 100% tariff, according to a draft of the document obtained by ...

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Diabetes Advocates Cross Their Fingers As A Bipartisan Bill Revives Efforts To Lower Insulin Costs

Two-year-old Bain Brandon has Type 1 diabetes and needs insulin to live. But even with health insurance, the price tag isn’t cheap. A one-month supply of insulin vials and a three-month supply of backup pens for the Mississippi toddler cost his parents $194 last week, according to his mom, 29-year-old Marlee Brandon. They can afford it right ...

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U.S. Employers Changed The Health Plan Cost Increase Curve, Researchers Say

U.S. employers, their benefits advisors, and health care products and services suppliers did a great job of holding down increases in health care costs between 2010 and 2024. Back in 2010, actuaries at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services predicted that employers would provide health coverage for just 168 million people in 2024, at ...

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New Health Care Advisory Committee Established To Help HHS And CMS

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the members of the Healthcare Advisory Committee, a new federal advisory body that will provide expert advice on improving, strengthening and modernizing U.S. health care. The committee will advise HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and ...

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