A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that about 25% of all health care spending in the U.S. is attributable to waste in the system.
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A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that about 25% of all health care spending in the U.S. is attributable to waste in the system.
A new study has found that more and more large employers are ditching high-deductible health plans as the job market tightens and they need to boost improve their health insurance offerings to retain and attract talent, and saddle their employees with less of the cost burden.
One of the country’s largest health insurers has sued a number of pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of running a price-fixing cartel of common generic drugs.
Humana Inc. has accused the companies of colluding on the prices of generics to the detriment of health insurers that have to pay for these drugs. Humana said in its lawsuit that this collusion prevented fair competition among insurers that could have reduced the cost of many of these drugs.
President Trump has issued a multi-faceted executive order to reduce costs and increase pricing transparency in the health care and insurance system.
The parts of his order that could affect benefits that are part of employer-sponsored plans include:
The much-maligned “Cadillac tax,” which was supposed to be implemented as a tax on high-value group health plans with premiums above a certain level, may finally be seeing the end of the road.
Already the implementation of the tax, which was created by the passage of the Affordable Care Act, has been postponed twice. It was originally supposed to take effect in 2018 under the ACA. The tax was delayed two years by Congress in 2016, pushing implementation ahead to 2020. It was delayed again in 2018 and is currently scheduled to take effect in 2022.
The Trump administration has decided not to pursue a policy that would have put an end to rebates paid to pharmacy benefit managers, which could put the focus again on how drug companies set their prices.
The proposal would have barred drug companies from paying rebates to PBMs that participate in Medicare and other government programs. According to the administration, the proposed rules were shelved because Congress had taken up the issue to control drug costs.
It’s looking more and more likely that a federal appeals court will strike down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which requires Americans to carry health insurance, either through coverage they receive from their employer or buying it themselves.
The Senate Health Committee in May 2019 released a draft bill that aims to reduce health care costs, taking particular aim at the lack of transparency in the system and the scourge of surprise medical bills.
The draft legislation is the first serious attempt at addressing the drivers behind costs in a system that is starting to see double-digit inflation again.
The heat is growing on the pharmaceutical industry after more than 40 US states filed a lawsuit accusing generic drug makers of engaging in a massive price-fixing scheme.
The lawsuit accuses 20 companies of conspiring to fix prices of more than 100 generic drugs, including some that are used to treat cancer and diabetes. The defendants include the largest producer of generic medicine in the world: Teva Pharmaceuticals.
The Trump administration has issued new rules that would allow employers to provide workers with funds in health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) that can be used to purchase health insurance on the individual market.
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