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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.

Hospital Price Transparency: Is It Pushing Prices Down?

The federal hospital price transparency rules adopted in 2021 have been doing more to cut prices than to spur the cheapest hospitals to raise their rates, according to analysts at Turquoise Health.

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Speaker Johnson Disputes Accusation He’ll Try To Repeal Obamacare

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is disputing Democrats’ assertion that he wants to repeal ObamaCare after Vice President Harris’s campaign seized on comments he made at a campaign stop this week. “Despite the dishonest characterizations from the Harris campaign, the audio and transcript make clear that I offered no such promise to end ObamaCare, and in fact acknowledged ...

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Employer Interest In Ozempic Copycats Grows

Telehealth companies selling low-cost, compounded versions of popular weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, are drawing increased interest from employers, Bloomberg reported Oct. 29. Employers are seeing rising employee demand for weight-loss drug coverage. However, the high costs of GLP1s has proven challenging. About 14% of employers covering the drugs are considering dropping coverage due to expense, ...

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IRS Adjusts Health Flexible Spending Account and Other Benefit Limits for 2025

On October 22, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Revenue Procedure 2024-40, which increases the health flexible spending account (FSA) salary reduction contribution limit to $3,300 for plan years beginning in 2025, an increase of $100 from 2024. Thus, for health FSAs with a carryover feature, the maximum carryover amount is $660 (20% of the ...

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Survey: Employers Fear Rising Health Costs Could Force Trade-Offs With Wages, Salaries

About three-quarters (74%) of those surveyed said they feel healthcare costs drive trade-offs for wage or salary increases, with 38% saying they "strongly agree" that this is the case.

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Rising Premiums Challenge SMBs To Offer Health Insurance, Despite Benefits

A new report by Gusto suggests it's in the best interest of most small businesses to offer their employees' health insurance. The benefits of offering health insurance are profound, from lower turnover to higher productivity.

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Insured Americans Can’t Predict Drug Costs: Survey

More than half of insured Americans say they can’t predict how much their covered prescription drugs will cost, according to an annual survey by the pharmaceutical industry trade group PhRMA. Why it matters: The results, shared first with Axios, come as the drug industry is pressing for more transparency regulations on pharmacy benefit managers and insurers in the lame-duck ...

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Walmart Offers Same-Day Prescription Delivery With Plans To Reach 49 States

Walmart plans to expand its home delivery of pharmacy items and offer them alongside the other merchandise in its online store, spreading to virtually all U.S. states in the next few months, the retailer announced. The new policy applies to same-day delivery of prescription medications and has already been rolled out to six states: Arkansas, ...

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5 Emerging Technologies Impacting Health Insurance Agents and Brokers

Technology is constantly evolving, and one of the industries where it’s having the greatest impact is insurance. If you’re a health insurance agent or broker, you need to keep up on how tech can impact you, your clients, underwriting new business, transparency, health monitoring, and policy personalization. Below is a look at five of the ...

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Why Your Next Prescription Could Include An App

Federal regulators are confronting a new twist in drug development: manufacturers that include software with the medicine to prod patients to take pills as directed, manage side effects or track how well a treatment works. Why it matters: The apps could boost the drugs’ clinical value and provide a more personalized approach to managing chronic conditions ...

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