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.
Although more than one-third of Gen Z adults pay for a cellphone protection plan, only 21% have a renters insurance policy. This discrepancy points to a need for better education about risk and why having the right insurance coverage matters.
Leading Republicans are looking toward the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to ensure CMS’ new premium stabilization demonstration program is legal and in the best interest of seniors. In a recent letter written by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, and House Ways and ...
More than half of U.S. states are reporting “very high” levels of COVID activity as the virus continues to spread and increase in many parts of the country, according to the latest wastewater data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 27 states are reporting “very high” levels and 17 states are reporting “high” ...
On May 13, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) published an open letter to Novo Nordisk on the front page of a leading Danish newspaper, urging the hometown company to live up to its altruistic standards by lowering U.S. prices for its blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs. What Sanders didn’t realize was that Denmark, a country ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is creating a voluntary demonstration program to support changes to Medicare Part D under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The agency also finalized bid information for contract year 2025, with a base beneficiary premium increase of $2.08 for people with Part D. The IRA is designed to ...
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a valuable tool for eligible individuals to save tax-free dollars for health care expenses, with the added benefit of accumulating tax-free interest over time. Introduced in 2003 and available to individuals starting in 2004, HSAs have become an integral part of health care planning and financial savings. While many health ...
Heat Map: Share of Residents Who Are Uninsured, 2022 Texas is home to the country’s largest share of Americans under 65 without health insurance, according to new Census Bureau data, with 18.8% of residents uninsured as of 2022. Why it matters: That’s a big improvement over 2006, when 27.6% of Texans were uninsured — but still nearly ...
One possible symptom of hospital consolidation, exhaustion or confusion: Fewer have star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The number of hospitals that sent CMS enough of the right data to be graded on the agency’s five-star quality rating system fell to 2,847 this year, down 7.4% from the number that earned ...
Nearly half of Americans with health insurance said they received a recent medical bill or a charge that “should have been free or covered by their insurance,” according to a survey released Thursday. The survey, from the Commonwealth Fund in New York City, found 45% of working-age consumers last year were erroneously billed, however, fewer than half ...
The Biden administration has finalized proposed payment rates for inpatient services in the coming year, and they’re not likely to be welcomed by hospitals. Initially, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 2.6% payment increase for 2025, which providers decried as inadequate. In the final Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule, that ...