News Briefs
✦ A joint report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Urban Institute found that “despite millions of Americans losing their job due to COVID-19, changes to people’s health insurance coverage might not be...
Commercial Fees for Clinician-Delivered Services Averaged 122% of Medicare Rates in 2017
The amount that private insurers paid for professional health care services (i.e. those delivered by a clinician) were, on average, 122% of Medicare rates nationally in 2017, according to a recent Health Care Cost I...
Appeals Court Gives Insurers a CSR Win, but Limits Payout
Health insurers that sued to recoup halted cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments scored a key victory on Aug. 14 when a federal appeals court confirmed that the government must reimburse them for providing subsidies...
Health Plans Face Uphill Battle to Reach Newly Uninsured
Health insurers are conducting outreach to people who may have been left without coverage as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, but experts say they may be partially stymied in their efforts to get people enrolled in ...
Firms Predict Steady Rise in Health Costs, More Virtual Care
While the COVID-19 pandemic has not caused employers to significantly alter their health care cost estimates for the coming year, it has unquestionably intensified their interest in embracing virtual care. Those are...
Aetna, Cleveland Clinic to Offer Co-Branded Employer Plans
CVS Health Corp.’s Aetna division — having recently rolled out two new plan designs that aim to ease customers’ cost-sharing burden — is now presenting employers with “a cost-effective offering beyond Aetn...
News Briefs
✦ The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Nov. 10 in a case seeking to dissolve the Affordable Care Act. Many health care policy watchers noted the timing of the arguments, as they are scheduled one week aft...
Little Is Spent on Treating High-Cost Patients’ Behavioral Health Conditions
While a small proportion of people who have behavioral health conditions in addition to physical conditions account for 44% of all health care spending, most of that spending is on physical rather than behavioral tr...
Sky-High 2Q Profits Train Spotlight on Health Insurers
With health care claims costs reaching ultra-low levels amid lockdowns, canceled elective procedures and consumers’ fear of contracting the novel coronavirus at clinical sites, publicly traded health insurers saw ...
With Risk Corridors Suits Settled, CSR Cases Heat Up
Fresh off winning a Supreme Court case concerning billions of dollars’ worth of payments from the Affordable Care Act risk corridors program, health insurers that operate in the ACA exchanges are racking up lower-...