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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.

Predictions Abound For Health Care Policy As Presidential Election Year Begins

Inflation and the economy are the top concern of voters heading into the 2024 presidential election cycle, but health care remains among the top worrisome issues nationally.

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Congress Passes Short-Term Funding Bill Extending DSH Payments To March 8

Both chambers of Congress voted Thursday to pass a bill Thursday that punts a partial government shutdown, set to go into effect this weekend, back to early March. The Senate voted 77-18 in favor of the stopgap Thursday afternoon, and was shortly followed by 314-108 vote in the House. President Joe Biden had previously signaled that ...

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Drug Cost Trends In 2024 Are ‘Nearly Unprecedented,’ Research Finds

Drugmakers aren’t raising prices like they used to, according to data from 46brooklyn Research. On Jan. 1, 453 branded drugs increased in cost — a similar figure to the start of 2023, which saw 452 pricier brand-name drugs. Drugmakers typically make the most drug price changes in January, and in 2023 and 2024, there seems to be ...

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Drugmakers Raise Prices of Ozempic, Mounjaro and Hundreds of Other Drugs

Drugmakers kicked off 2024 by raising the list prices for Ozempic, Mounjaro and dozens of other widely used medicines. Companies including Novo Nordisk NOVO.B -0.76%decrease; red down pointing triangle, the maker of Ozempic, and Eli Lilly LLY -0.87%decrease; red down pointing triangle, which sells Mounjaro, raised list prices on 775 brand-name drugs during the first ...

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DOL Issues Guidance On New 401(K)-Linked Emergency Savings Accounts

Unlike emergency savings accounts that employers have rolled out over the past few years, these new SECURE 2.0 pension-linked accounts have auto-enrollment but employees must be given the chance to opt out.

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What the Health Care Sector Was Selling at the J.P. Morgan Confab

Every year, thousands of bankers, venture capitalists, private equity investors, and other moneybags flock to San Francisco’s Union Square to pursue deals. Scores of security guards keep the homeless, the snoops, and the patent-stealers at bay, while the dealmakers pack into the cramped Westin St. Francis hotel and its surrounds to meet with cash-hungry executives ...

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What To Know About January’s Annual Drug Price Hikes

Drug companies often increase prices at the start of the new year, and 2024 seems to be no exception. There have been about 600 price hikes so far in January, according to the drug price nonprofit 46Brooklyn Research. But the increases haven’t been as steep as they were in some previous years. In the 2010s, drug ...

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2024 To Become ‘Super Bowl’ Of Telehealth Regulation, Trade Group Says

This year promises to be a Super Bowl of telehealth, according to plans by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). The year 2024 has at least two major factors that could be hugely influential for telehealth, according to the organization and its affiliated ATA Action advocacy nonprofit. It’s a presidential election year, and it will bring the ...

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Wages Haven’t Kept Pace With Premium Hikes: Study

Wages have not been able to offset the rising costs of premiums for workers with employer-sponsored coverage over the last three decades, with Black and Hispanic employees hit particularly hard by this development, according to a study in JAMA Network Open. One possible remedy would be for companies to base premiums on how much individuals get paid; with those ...

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Top Trends For Payers, Providers And Health Tech Companies To Watch

We’ve closed the books on another hectic J. P Morgan Healthcare Conference where investors, executives, startup founders and reporters all battle rain, hail, and in this year’s case, flight disruptions to be at one of the top industry events. The conference included presentations from industry incumbents like Mayo Clinic, Walgreens, CVS and Cigna as well as smaller ...

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