CMS is allowing Medicare Advantage (MA) health plans to implement step therapy protocols in order to decrease prescription drug spending.
On January 1, 2019, MA health plans can apply step therapy...
The American Medical Association is urging the Department of Justice to squash the proposed merger between CVS Health and Aetna.
The combined entity would drastically reduce competition in many...
CMS has announced that monthly Medicare Part D premiums are expected to fall from $33.59 in 2018 to $32.50 in 2019 as new policies to reduce Medicare’s drug costs take effect.
Earlier in 2018,...
Using generic drugs instead of their brand-name equivalents could have saved the Medicare Part D program approximately $3 billion in 2016 alone, according to new data from HHS.
A relatively small...
CMS has released redesigned drug price dashboards to provide information about manufacturer drug costs and advance the agency’s goals of promoting consumer price transparency.
Patients,...
Aetna has announced plans to automatically apply pharmacy rebates to eligible prescription drug benefits by 2019 in an effort to increase pricing transparency and control costs.
Nearly three million...
CMS has released the second part of its proposed Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D changes, which include administrative upgrades to assist with combating the nation’s the opioid crisis...
CMS is proposing regulatory changes that would offer health plans additional flexibility to design and implement Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Medicare benefits.
The rule would reduce...
Employers are starting to prepare and educate retirees for expected post-retirement care costs of $275,000, according to market analysis published by Fidelity Investments.
The analysis found a...
Payers may be able to secure more of the growing Medicare Advantage (MA) marketplace by expanding their member messaging efforts and improving consumer education about what the supplementary plan has...
Reducing prescription drug prices for payers requires market-based solutions that increase competition and deregulate federal drug policies, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) wrote...
Cigna announced in a securities filing that it had received the green light from CMS to begin offering Medicare Advantage plans again after an 18 month suspension.
The insurer had been banned...
CMS announced updates to the Medicare Advantage (MA) program and Part D Prescription Drug Program, including an expected 0.45 percent increase in revenues for payers and the potential for up to 2.95...
The American Hospital Association (AHA) has voiced concerns about the methodology the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to use to calculate risk scores for health plans under...
Now that the final month of the year is wrapping up and everyone is planning their New Year’s celebrations, a review of the most popular headlines for the health insurance industry may be...
Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP, the three major public insurance programs overseen by CMS, often set the tone for the large private health payer industry. CMS is using all three programs to actively encourage the movement towards...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in a press release late last week that the average Medicare Advantage monthly premium will be 13 percent lower in 2017 than before the...
