A Closer Look at States’ Telehealth Regulations
by Jinghong Chen
The telehealth boom caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led policymakers to make an array of changes to telehealth regulation and payment structure. As of February 2021, 43 states and Washington D....
News Briefs
✦ Anthem, Inc. will acquire myNEXUS, Inc., “a comprehensive home-based nursing management company,” the insurer said on March 24. The provider-facing myNEXUS platform facilitates authorization by a payer for h...
ACA Subsidy Expansion Will Make Big Impact on Exchanges
For an individual health insurance market that is already hitting its stride, the new pandemic relief legislation’s expansion of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies is yet another positive catalyst that should mak...
Experts Predict Permanent Coverage Shifts Post-Pandemic
Millions of people in the United States have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance as a result of the pandemic and have had to find new sources of coverage — if they have been able to get insurance at all...
Medicare’s Pay Increase for COVID Vaccines May Cost Plans
CMS has significantly boosted the amount that Medicare will pay for administering COVID-19 vaccines, a move that appears to be a positive development for health care providers and retail pharmacies but a potential h...
Plans Want Diagnoses From Phone Visits Included in MA Risk Adjustment
A health insurer trade group is calling on the federal government to change Medicare Advantage (MA) risk adjustment calculations to include telephone visits, saying the issue has become urgent due to the pandemic, w...
News Briefs
✦ The U.S. Senate on March 18 narrowly confirmed Xavier Becerra, the current California attorney general, as the new secretary of HHS, prompting a slew of statements from health care industry trade and interest gr...
Insurers Roll Up Sleeves in Bid to Promote Vaccine Equity
With three coronavirus vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. and production and distribution continually ramping up, it’s now more important than ever for stakeholders across the health care system to get involv...
Blues’ Earnings Releases Stress Member, Provider Support
Although health insurers typically try to emphasize the strength of their financial performance when issuing quarterly and annual earnings reports, the COVID-19 pandemic’s largely positive effect on managed care m...
eHealth Forms Bipartisan Panel to Solve Health Policy Problems
A private online health insurance marketplace for individual market, small group and Medicare Advantage policies, eHealth, has formed a high-powered advisory panel with a bipartisan group of former governors, federa...