IRS Announces HSA/HDHP Limits for 2018
Perhaps this is early but you can file it. IRS Announces HSA-HDHP Limits for 2018 Who knows where the federal healthcare regulations are going, but if the Republicans (and the President) pass...
View ArticleWonder Why Our Healthcare Costs Are So High?
Bob Laszewski is an insurance health industry expert we regularly track to stay up to speed on the national healthcare picture. His typically even-handed analysis has been consistently the most...
View ArticlePharmacy Coupons and Insurance Companies Making Adjustments
This is an example of one Ohio company adjusting how they administer coupons people use at the pharmacy. The program helps make sure members’ out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs are properly...
View ArticleIn Acquiring Aetna, CVS Health is Aspiring to Become “the Trusted Front Door...
In a letter to the broker community Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini provided a glimpse of where the combined CVS/Aetna entity hopes to head once everything is completed. If approved, the blockbuster...
View ArticleHealth Coverage By the Numbers
Job-based health insurance is the largest single source of health care coverage in the U.S. 1.) Employer-sponsored insurance covers more than 157 million workers and their dependents. 2.) The next...
View ArticleHealth Coverage By the Numbers (vol 2): The Cost of Coverage and Employer...
Job-based health insurance is still far and away the largest single source of health care coverage in the U.S. As we continue to work on behalf of clients to drive new and better ways to stem the tide...
View ArticleCould 2018 End Up Being a Year of Improved Health Insurance Market Stability?...
With healthcare seemingly out of the political crosshairs for the moment and any tectonic shifts emanating from a new Amazon/Berkshire Hathaway/J.P. Morgan Chase superpower health entity a ways down...
View ArticleWarren Buffett on the Amazon/Berkshire/Chase health venture —“Don’t Expect...
A month and change has now passed since the great splash of January’s big Amazon/Berkshire/Chase health venture announcement. It certainly was successful in disrupting the news cycle. The initially...
View ArticleAs Expected, States Will Have More Control and Greater Flexibility in...
In a CMS press release the Trump Administration announced yesterday, as expected, that beginning in 2019 individual states will have more control and greater flexibility in regulating the individual...
View ArticleDeja Vu: CMS extends Transitional Relief Plans (pre-ACA) Through 2019
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) recently announced that employers in the small group market that are currently still enrolled in Transitional Relief Plans (also known alternatively as Keep...
View ArticleAbout High Deductible Health Plans — Say It Ain’t Always So Joe!
Great friend, colleague, and highly respected industry consultant Joe Paduda writes today in his widely read Manage Care Matters column about the possible cost and claim shifting implications of...
View ArticleHighlights from Wide-Ranging Interview with Atul Gawande, Head of the New ABJ...
(Note: In keeping with our 2 Minute Drill mantra, we’ve broken this into two parts. Today in Part 1 we’ll highlight Gawande’s view of the three big systemic problems with healthcare. Tomorrow in Part 2...
View ArticlePart 2 of Highlights from Atul Gawande Interview, Head of the New ABJ...
(Note: Yesterday in Part 1 we highlighted Gawande’s view of the three big systemic problems with healthcare. Today in Part 2 we’ll summarize his vision for the ABJ-HCE.) Last week Amazon/Berkshire/JP...
View ArticleAssociation Health Plans: No Clear Picture Yet of What Will Emerge Out of the...
On June 19th the Department of Labor released final regs that offer new options for associations to sponsor health plans for their members. There’s no clear picture yet of what will emerge out of the...
View ArticleCoupons for Prescription Drugs: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Drug Coupons Explained We encourage and help anyone we can to obtain a coupon for their prescriptions.. We know, however, that there are emerging issues with them. Some background Drug manufacturers...
View Article65Plus Is The Hottest Labor Market Demographic. Here Are Key 2019 Medicare...
Some say it’s the hottest demographic in the labor market — men and women ditching traditional retirement age to work into their 70s, 80s and sometimes beyond. According to the Bureau of Labor...
View ArticleThree Notable Employer Health Coverage Factoids In The News This Week……
…… that may be of interest only to me. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase Finally Has a Name It only took eight months. The new nonprofit healthcare company founded by Amazon, Berkshire...
View ArticleDéjà Vu, Again – Small Group Transitional Relief Plans (pre-ACA) Extended...
Buried far below the most recent headlines related to eliminating the ACA, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) once again announced that employers in the small group market still enrolled in...
View ArticleWhen It Comes To Lowering Healthcare Costs Do Workplace Wellness Programs...
Don’t get me wrong, I completely support the notion of promoting positive health behaviors and healthier lifestyles. Encouraging such things as regular exercise, good and balanced nutrition, the proper...
View ArticleThe Wide Variation In The Price Of Diagnostic Tests Is Unrelated To Outcomes...
A study of spending on 12.5 million diagnostics tests by UnitedHealthcare once again revealed substantial variation in the prices patients pay for common diagnostic tests. The seven groups of common...
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