Expanding air ambulance benefits may help payers lower beneficiary premiums and help beneficiaries avoid several thousand dollars in out-of-pocket healthcare spending.
An air ambulance costs between...
The Department of Labor (DoL) released a proposed rule that allows small businesses and employee groups to purchase association health plans (AHPs) in lieu of employer-sponsored or individual health...
Certain segments of the healthcare insurance market, including employer-sponsored insurance and Medicare Advantage (MA), will help to stabilize payer profitability in 2018, predicts a report by A.M....
2017 was a turbulent year for the Affordable Care Act. Legislative battles in Congress, fluctuating support from healthcare stakeholders, and threats of repeal have left many payers facing an...
Mississippi will be the first state to receive a 10-year extension of a 1115 Medicaid waiver, CMS announced. The waiver originally implemented in 2003, expands eligibility requirements for...
The Department of Justice (DoJ) recovered $2.4 billion from federal healthcare fraud cases during 2017, the agency announced in a press release.
Healthcare-related fraud recoveries accounted for 64...
Michigan is asking CMS for a renewal of its 1115 Medicaid waiver demonstration that increased the number of insured individuals in the state and led to a reduction in unhealthy behaviors.
The...
New research from the Commonwealth Fund found that the Medicare Advantage (MA) benchmark bidding system, which was intended to reduce plan inefficiencies, has allowed health plans to benefit...
Approximately 8.82 million beneficiaries enrolled in a health plan during the seven week 2018 ACA open enrollment period, which experienced surges in health plan purchasing activity during the...
GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate passed a federal tax bill that includes a repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate to purchase health insurance. The bill now heads back to the...
Humana signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 40 percent minority in the Kindred at Home division of Kindred Healthcare, the nation’s largest home health care provider. The $800 million...
The vast majority of patients living with chronic diseases would support legislation to limit a payer’s ability to switch their prescriptions without medical necessity, according to a new series...
An October executive order that expands the availability of short-term association health plans (AHPs) could present significant challenges for state governments and consumers, asserted AHIP, BCBS, and...
A number of state governments have submitted Medicaid 1115 waivers to CMS in order to expand Medicaid eligibility requirements, stabilize their in-state premium rates, manage public health issues, and...
At a Senate HELP Committee hearing this month, policy experts and advocacy groups suggested several strategies that could lower prescription drug costs, including removing Medicare Part D cost-sharing,...
A repeal of the individual mandate, as included in the current GOP Senate tax reform plan, would result in financial losses for payers that could not be offset by cost-sharing reduction payments, the...
The US’s current prescription drug policies require updates that cut prescription drug spending while increasing competition in the market, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences,...
The Department of Justice (DoJ) recently detailed three cases of healthcare fraud targeting private payers, Medicaid, and Medicare that totaled $49.1 million. The schemes involved common fraud tactics...
The US Senate voted 51-49 to reform national tax policy and simultaneously repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, major news outlets reported at the end of last week.
GOP senators...
CMS has issued a draft letter that outlines guidelines, dates, reporting, and regulatory requirements for payers that want to sell qualified health plans (QHPs) in 2019.
The Annual Letter to Insurers...
