The Trump administration has unveiled yet another new payment model, this one focused on the cost of GLP-1 therapies. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday announced the Better Approaches to Lifestyle and Nutrition for Comprehensive hEalth, or BALANCE, model. The program seeks to make it easier for Medicare Part D plans and Medicaid ...

Federal agencies are hoping that they can make health plans’ price transparency reports easier to file and easier for ordinary computer users to use. The agencies are preparing to post new draft “Transparency in Coverage” program regulations Tuesday. The TiC reports are supposed to be public, and they are supposed to show what health insurers ...

Lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that could apply Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary requirements to employer health plans’ pharmacy benefit managers. The bill, the PBM Fiduciary, Accountability, Integrity and Reform Act, or PBM FAIR Act, would add a PBM fiduciary section to ERISA section 3(21), according to a version of the text posted by Sen. Roger ...

A key GOP senator is expressing optimism that Republicans and Democrats will agree to a deal that would extend expiring health care subsidies, but the effort faces an uphill climb in winning the backing of leaders in both parties. Without a deal, health insurance premiums are projected to spike by double digits next month, yet ...

With escalating medical and pharmacy costs as a primary motivator, employers are moving health care benefit cost-containment to the top of their overall priorities for 2026, according to a new survey. In last year’s edition of Brown & Brown’s Employee Health and Benefits Strategy report, employers ranked “attracting and retaining a healthy and engaged workforce” as ...

Texas and Alaska will receive the largest amount of funding from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program in fiscal year 2026, while New Jersey and Connecticut will see the least, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday. All 50 states had submitted applications to the federal government in November outlining plans to improve ...