CMS Administrator Seema Verma calls the new rule a small step. We couldn’t agree more! According to recent reports, what was touted as a giant step for healthcare cost transparency has turned out to be little more than a puzzle few can solve. The rule, which took effect on January 1, 2019, requires that hospitals [...]
While the Department of Health and Human Services has asked drug manufacturers to disclose list prices for most drugs they feature in television commercials, the industry’s largest trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), has countered with an offer to include content directing consumers to a new website where pricing information could [...]
This article was published on March 13, 2019 on BenefitsPro written by Max Nisen. OptumRX, UnitedHealth's PBM, will mandate that all new employer health-plan clients pass the drug discounts it obtains directly to plan participants. The health-care policy environment is shifting in a dangerous way for insurance giants. A seemingly small change in how drugs [...]
You might be surprised to hear that millennials represent one third of the American workforce, but Pew Research Center confirms it. If your health benefit plan hasn’t adapted to the needs and lifestyles of these young people, you’re missing an opportunity to boost retention, build loyalty and enhance wellness. For starters, it’s important to realize [...]
With unemployment for college-educated people age 25 and above at just 2.2%, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a jobs market this tight. To attract and retain workers in this environment, growing companies are offering more than just competitive health benefits, and this is especially true for smaller companies forced to compete with [...]
In late Fall, the President signed two bills that should make it easier for pharmacists to help customers find the lowest cost, appropriate medications. The “Know the Lowest Price Act of 2018” and “Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act” bills are designed to crack down on “gag clauses” that prevent pharmacists from telling patients [...]
Investment bank Morgan Stanley recently hired a Chief Medical Officer. General Motors made the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System the only in-network option for 24,000 salaried employees in southeast Michigan. And, Apple joined many other large employers in using on-site clinics to provide more personalized care. These tactics are being used to address a combination [...]
It can be as easy as handing them a check for a percentage of savings. In last month’s HCU, we discussed the flexibility that self-funding provides – emphasizing that within regulatory parameters, self-funding gives the employer significant power over plan design, selection of providers, ways to incentivize plan members and much more. These days, more [...]
Currently, only 21 states offer some protection against balance billing and most existing laws apply to emergency services required from out-of-network providers. Few, if any, address balance bills received for treatment by an out-of-network provider in an in-network hospital. In Pennsylvania, the Governor and General Assembly have introduced two bills aimed at taking consumers out [...]
This article was published on January 31, 2019 on Employee Benefit News, written by Steve Kelly. Today more than ever before, benefits and human resources professionals are struggling to provide their teams with quality coverage at affordable rates. Costs have skyrocketed for the more than 150 million Americans who receive healthcare coverage through their workplace [...]
