Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Thursday unveiled the Biden administration’s road map to lowering the cost of prescription drugs. The plan, summarized in a 29-page document, supports legislation that allows the federal government to negotiate lower prices on the costliest drugs each year and pass those savings on to private insurers. Current ...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires group health plans to spend a minimum percentage of premium dollars on members’ health care expenses and services. Likewise, it sets a threshold on the maximum amount of premium dollars that can be spent on other administrative costs, such as marketing, profits, salaries, agent commissions, etc. These requirements, known ...

It’s a situation that appears incongruous: Congressional Democrats want to expand Medicare’s benefits while a trust fund that supports the program is facing insolvency. Indeed, some Republican lawmakers have seized on that looming problem as a reason to oppose a proposal to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare. The provision is included in ...

Payers and hospitals say with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing and key elements still unreleased, it will be difficult to comply by Jan. 1.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has advised that the Biden administration will “monitor” to ensure no one abuses COVID-19 vaccine exemptions. President Biden last week announced a mandate that required any company with at least 100 employees to mandate its workforce. The only way to avoid the mandate is to claim an exemption on either religious or medical grounds. Some critics ...

The surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant has employers rethinking their plans for returning to work — and planning for business to stabilize later than expected, a new survey shows. Most employers expected a stabilized business environment by the end of this year, but their confidence has declined from 65% to 57% over the past ...