New annualized premium for workplace life insurance, disability insurance and supplemental health products posted solid gains for the year, according to LIMRA’s workplace benefits sales surveys.
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The share of fee-for-service Medicare enrollees choosing a Medicare Supplement plan rose to 41.4% in 2022, increasing for the fifth consecutive year.
Walmart announced April 30 it will close its 51 health care centers in Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Walmart Health said an unworkable business model is the reason for the closures. Walmart Health began opening care centers in 2019.
House and Senate leaders were working behind closed doors to secure support. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., with some of the worst health outcomes. Democrats have said for years that Medicaid expansion could help people receive care for chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, and that an infusion of federal money could give a boost…
Since the expiration of COVID-19-related provisions requiring states to keep residents enrolled in Medicaid, an estimated 2.1 million Texans have lost their coverage. Texas has by far the highest number of uninsured in the country and has removed significantly more individuals from coverage than any other state. We estimated the economic costs of…
Health insurance procedures will look different in Illinois if legislation advancing through Springfield becomes law, but some are concerned about the cost to taxpayers. The proposal wouldmake Illinois the first state in the country to ban prior authorization for in-patient adult and children's mental health care. "The bill's purpose is to make quality…
The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the workers on Monday, finding that the exclusion violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of gender identity and sex. The case could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. “In this case, discriminating on the basis of diagnosis is discriminating on the basis of…
Mississippi could be next, where an expansion measure continues to advance in the state Legislature— with a plan perhaps partly inspired by the unusual variation on Medicaid expansion first enacted in Arkansas in 2014.. The Mississippi proposals currently being considered feature "work requirements," so even if the Mississippi Legislature passes a bill, it…
Some Virginia state employees will pay more for health insurance beginning July 1, following the state's latest review and projection of claims. Overall, the state Department of Human Resource Management proposed a 6.3% increase in total premiums for the next fiscal year. The 6.3% increase is what budget writers expected, according to a House Appropriations…
Related: U.S. growth slowdown, with inflation spike, raises early stagflation risks. Earlier this month, shares of Humana, UnitedHealth and CVS Health tumbled when the U.S. Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services said Medicare Advantage payments would rise only by an average of 3.7% next year. The payments reimbursing insurers for treatment of U.S. patients over…
Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, joined lawmakers from the House and Senate to urge the Office of Personnel Management to require all health insurance carriers in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to cover in-vitro fertilization treatments and medications. A handful of states nationally have some sort of mandate for IVF…
Supporters of Medicaid expansion would argue that it is wholly appropriate that Leah Hendrix has recently been a featured speaker in rallies at the state Capitol in favor of providing health care coverage for primarily working poor Mississippians. Hendrix, a Jackson mother of four and the wife of a physician, is the granddaughter of Alton Cobb, the state's…
Kim Albin has lost count of the number of times she’ s had to battle health insurance companies over medications. Albin, who has been living with multiple sclerosis for nearly 30 years, said health insurers have told her time and again that they won’ t cover medications her doctors have prescribed until she first tries alternate, often cheaper, ones.
Apr. 24— Since the expiration of COVID-19-related provisions requiring states to keep residents enrolled in Medicaid, an estimated 2.1 million Texans have lost their coverage. Texas has by far the highest number of uninsured in the country and has removed significantly more individuals from coverage than any other state, information from the Perryman Group…
Medicare recipients are putting off care more than other insured adults as costs rise
QMedic analyzed data from the Commonwealth Fund's 2023 Health Care Affordability Survey to illustrate how many Americans are putting off health care due to cost. Half of all working adults surveyed by the Commonwealth Fund reported that it was "very or somewhat difficult to afford their health care" costs, including those with employer-sponsored health…
A patient will be compensated R $10,000 for moral damages after her health insurance plan denied coverage for a surgical procedure. The decision comes from the 14th Civil Chamber of the Minas Gerais Court of Justice, which upheld a decision by the Betim District Court, in Greater Belo Horizonte. According to the lawsuit, the patient was diagnosed with scoliosis…
Apr. 22— Private insurance companies operating in New Mexico are fully covering Opill, the first daily oral contraceptive pill to gain approval for over-the-counter use in the U.S.. The New Mexico Office of Superintendent of Insurance announced last week private health plans have all added full coverage of the medication, following New Mexico's Medicaid…
Apr. 22— JEFFERSON CITY— A year's supply of contraception would have to be covered by the state's private health insurers under a proposal that passed the Missouri House on Monday. Tara Peters, R- Rolla, who is sponsoring the bipartisan measure, has said that because Missouri is a non-abortion state, women should have the tools they need to prevent unintended…
Kevin Schmidt, a Republican from Millstadt, voted for a proposed bill that would change the way medical insurance companies approve prescribed health care treatments, he broke ranks with some party colleagues in the metro-east. J.B. Pritzker at the Memorial Hospital Orthopedic and Neurosciences Center in Belleville to publicize the bill known as the…
The ERISA Industry Committee launched a TV and digital ad campaign today detailing the potential negative implications of federal rule changes to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.