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.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized an increase of the average benchmark payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by 5.06%, or $25 billion, on Monday. It is nearly a three-percentage-point increase over the advance notice proposed in the waning days of the Biden administration and will be seen as favorable to payers. ...
Commonly used drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic were exempt from President Donald Trump’s expansive reciprocal tariffs announced earlier this week, which are expected to drive prices up across several industries, though analysts and Trump have warned that future tariffs will likely target imported medicines. Key Facts Trump imposed a baseline 10% on most U.S. imports ...
Gov. Gavin Newsom sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Saturday, imploring the department to reverse the abrupt cancellation of a Biden-era program that feeds millions of California families and has served as a lifeline for hundreds of small farmers since its inception in 2021. “The irrational and malicious slashing of funds ...
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford joined a coalition of attorneys general from 23 states in filing a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for terminating nearly $12 billion in public health grants. Ford claims that the terminating of grants was illegal and would ...
It’s a holy grail of health care: forcing the industry to reveal prices negotiated between health plans and hospitals — information that had long been treated as a trade secret. And among the flurry of executive orders President Donald Trump signed during his first five weeks back in office was a promise to “Make America ...
The agency submitted an order (PDF) seeking an administrative stay in the case, as there are currently no sitting commissioners who are able to join the proceedings. The two sitting commissioners, Republicans Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, have recused themselves.
Bipartisan lawmakers have introduced a bill that aims to more closely align Medicare insurers’ prior authorization denials with medical need, as determined by board-certified specialist physicians.
New taxes on prescription drugs imported from Canada could affect about 400 different drug products, according to a new analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Migration Tool Performance: According to EN, approximately 30 brokers have successfully used the Ease>EN migration tool, which takes about five minutes per company. Notably, one broker has migrated 66 companies without any support from EN.
Braidwood oral arguments are set for April 21. A policy expert says many states will maintain the current standards, even if the federal rules go away