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.
Three employer groups are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let the insurers and employers involved in No Surprises Act claim disputes sue over what they believe to be outrageous awards. The groups — the American Benefits Council, the ERISA Industry Committee and the Business Group on Health — are urging the appeals ...
Efforts to rein in the high cost of health care in recent years often have targeted the use of prior authorization by insurers. Patients and providers argue that it can result in delays or denials in receiving needed care, while insurers counter that it helps reduce costs by limiting the use of low-value or unnecessary ...
The American Medical Association is out with a new framework for physicians’ role in the age of AI, provided first to Axios, that insists doctors remain central to patient care. Why it matters: The debate over whether AI will supplant doctors in clinical care is heating up, but the AMA has remained adamant that humans not ...
While overall medical costs continued to rise, prescription drug prices fell by 3.1 percent in the year ending in July, the steepest annual decline since 1963.
At a Walgreens in this city’s bustling Japantown neighborhood, pharmacist Margaret On stocks two boxes of long-acting insulin pens from California’s new prescription drug label, CalRx, emblazoned with the state’s iconic grizzly bear. Although she hasn’t dispensed any, On plans to keep them on hand. “It’s good to have if a patient comes in and doesn’t ...
Kaiser Permanente reported nearly $1.7 billion in operating income (4.6% operating margin) during the second quarter of 2026, a more than $600 million improvement over the same period in 2025. The country’s largest nonprofit health system, in a quarterly financial update shared Friday that precedes its more granular regulatory filing, outlined $35.6 billion in operating ...
Thomas Zordani flew from his home in Denver to Phoenix for a consultation with a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon, hoping to find out what could be done to treat his debilitating headaches after worrisome brain scan findings. When making the appointment, Zordani said, he’d been told the clinic was in his insurer’s network. Upon arrival, Zordani ...
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a formula used by healthcare providers, insurers and the government that is designed to shield patients from staggeringly high “surprise” medical bills. In an unsigned decision, a majority of the 17-judge 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans assured the ruling would not lead to ...
A health care advocacy group on Thursday sued the American Medical Association in an effort to get more transparency over the association’s billing codes, which guide billions of dollars in health care payments. PatientRightsAdvocate.org hopes to republish the codes online and allow the public to search them free. The group, which has pushed for health care ...
SCAN Health Plan and Costco will roll out insurance products for older adults in the coming years, according to an Aug. 18 news release. The Wall Street Journal reported that the companies would begin by selling jointly branded Medicare Advantage products in two states, as well as a Medicare supplement in a third state. While the geography was ...