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HealthyWomen/WebMD Study: Women Don’t Discuss Health Concerns

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More than 3,100 U.S. women aged 18 and older from various ethnic and racial backgrounds and life stages responded to the report, Aging Smart, Aging Well: A National Dialogue on Women's Health Attitudes and Behaviors which assessed how women experience their physical, mental and sexual health as they age and their attitudes about healthy aging.

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Application Programing Interfaces can help benefits brokers manage their employer-clients’ data. But brokers must be sure the API technology they select will meet their clients’ needs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 36% of 65- to 69-year-olds will be in the workforce by 2024. In addition, a 2014 AARP study tells us that 70% of experienced workers plan to work full time or part time in retirement. This whole paradigm shift affects not only seniors, but also those who work closely with this population.

Employer wellness programs are mainstream components of benefit packages for most major companies. However, today’s programs have come a long way from their beginnings nearly 40 years ago.

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In 2018, 8.3% of Texas children under the age of 6– a total of 198,014– were uninsured. Texas has the second highest rate of uninsured young children, behind Alaska. About 19% of the country's uninsured young children are in Texas, even though Texas' share of the total U.S. population of young children is about half that percentage.

Americans are more focused on improving their health and wellness than their finances in 2020, with only 14% of people including financial planning as a resolution in 2020 – down from 18% last year. In addition, when asked about their top focus areas for the New Year, more than half of Americans said health and wellness while only 27% chose financial stability.
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

Insurers did suffer losses on Obamacare’s marketplace, as customers’ claims exceeded expectations, but Congress later enacted appropriation riders restricting the funds that could be used to pay the insurers. The Federal Circuit Court sided with the government, saying the subsequent moves by Congress repealed the original guarantee.

To help employees maximize their new benefits, StayWell, a leading provider of employer well-being solutions, has identified the five key wellness trends to watch in 2020.. “Employers continue to see strong outcomes and positive return from investments into employee wellness programs, with increases in productivity, stronger engagement, and a positive…

Kyrsten Sinema, D- Arizona, issued the following news release:. Today, the U.S. Senate approved the bipartisan Over-the-Counter Monograph Safety, Innovation, and Reform Act, sponsored by Republican Senator Johnny Isakson and cosponsored by Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema. “Eliminating barriers for over-the-counter medicines will increase…

The College of American Pathologists cannot support a recent legislative agreement struck by congressional leaders that relies on insurance industry-controlled rates to pay for unexpected out-of-network services. Frank Pallone and Greg Walden still uses rate setting for out-of-network services. About the College of American Pathologists.
Who will occupy the White House in 2021? The upcoming election is sure to hinge on the economy, pundits agree.

Released in late November, the Pete Buttigieg retirement plan focuses on ensuring “all Americans experience dignity and security in retirement.” Buttigieg’s plan identifies the three biggest short comings of retirement savings in America.
The Affordable Care Act continues to draw fire from conservatives. Will Democrats be able to go further?

Private health insurers will seek to convince the Supreme Court Tuesday that the federal government owes them $12 billion in lost revenue, for selling plans under the Affordable Care Act to persons who otherwise would not have qualified.

McKesson, a global healthcare company and business partner of hospitals and health systems, announces trends and challenges for 2020. Healthcare will be a major theme of the upcoming election cycle, resulting in uncertainty and instability. “Regardless of election outcomes, hospital and health systems must proactively move from transactional…

“Fifty-one million working adults are without disability insurance beyond basic Social Security. Without a bigger safety net, an employee’ s financial stability could quickly collapse due to an unexpected illness,” said Tom Foran, vice president of Underwriting and Product Development at The Standard. More than one in four of today’ s 20- year-olds can expect to…

Much has been said about the fact that the U.S. has millions of uninsured or poorly insured health care recipients despite being the richest economy in the world, and that health costs in most developed nations are only half of ours. Fortunately, Virginia has taken steps to help rectify this by enrolling 325,000 adult Virginians through Medicaid expansion.
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

National health spending reached $3.6 trillion– about $11,172 per person– in 2018, a 4.6% increase from the previous year, according to an annual report by the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, published online in Health Affairs. Employer-sponsored health insurance is getting more expensive as well.

Nonetheless, it was a nugget of decent news in a sobering, broader report on rising U.S. health care spending. The HHS report found that spending on prescription medicines at pharmacies accounted for 9% of the total $3.6 trillion national health care tab in 2018. Total U.S. health care spending grew by 4.6% last year, averaging $11,172 per person.

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. During November, the funded ratio for these plans rose slightly, from 86.1% to 86.8%, while the funded status deficit improved by $15 billion. November's one-basis point…
The Affordable Care Act continues to draw fire from conservatives. Will Democrats be able to go further?

A majority of Americans still prefer private health insurance over government-run alternatives, a new survey shows. The House energy and commerce committee will hold a hearing next week to evaluate public concepts, including the “Medicare For All”- style plans favored by presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

The survey found that most people are moderately satisfied with their health insurance, with an aggregate satisfaction score of 78 percent overall across all ages. Survey respondents indicated their individual cost is the top factor contributing to satisfaction, and they are willing to take on more risk and healthy behaviors to drive down those costs.

A year after its historic acquisition of Hartford- based Aetna, Inc., CVS Health Corp. remains bullish on Hartford, making good on its commitment to maintain a local workforce of about 6,000 and planning to roll out expanded health services at some pharmacies in Connecticut, beginning in Hartford this spring. “I’ ll underscore the point that we made a year ago that…

MONTPELIER, Vt.— Vermont has reached a $1.8 million settlement with a company that sold unapproved and inadequate student health insurance policies at 10 of the state’ s colleges and universities, financial regulators announced Tuesday. The state says the company offered health insurance to more than 2,500 Vermont students in school years 2014-2016. If…

Eight in 10 employers say their employees are struggling financially as they face persistent problems such as saving for retirement, paying down debt and dealing with medical expenses, to name a few, according to new research from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. The 2019 MassMutual Workplace Financial Wellness Study 1 finds that 79% of…

Dec. 3– Telemedicine has made strides in Indiana since the state passed its first major piece of legislation in 2015, regulating the new technology and requiring private payers and Medicaid to cover telehealth services. Today, more hospitals and providers are offering consultations and services through virtual visits than ever before, and more rural…

Employers that provide coverage expect to continue to provide health insurance and other healthcare benefits to their employees, with only 4% expecting their company to reduce coverage as much as possible, according to the latest Transamerica healthcare employer survey.

FSSA expects to submit Indiana's HIP extension request shortly after the public comment period on the state's application closes Dec. 6. An independent evaluation of HIP that's set to accompany Indiana's renewal application finds the program has improved health care access in Indiana, particularly for people previously uninsured. In the meantime, however,…

–LifeSecure Insurance Company is doing business in Maine for the first time as the company has launched its Long Term Care Insurance in the state's worksite market. With the addition of Maine, LifeSecure has grown its national footprint to 49 states and Washington, D.C. “Long term care is an issue that's become all too familiar in households in Maine and across the…

Florida is leading the nation in Affordable Care Act health insurance enrollments on healthcare.gov during this sixth enrollment period and will likely again be the platform's biggest customer when the sign-up period ends Dec. 15. In the first half of November, 463,066 Floridians had signed up for new plans or renewed the ones they had, according to the most…
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

The Biden campaign favors a September KFF Health Tracking Poll that showed that 55% of Democrats prefer a candidate who would build on the existing Affordable Care Act, while 40% of Democrats prefer a candidate who would replace the ACA with Medicare for All. Is the poll reasonably correct?
CHANHASSEN, MN/USA - MARCH 17, 2018: Walgreens store exterior and sign. Walgreens is the largest drug retailing chain in the United States.

UnitedHealthcare is launching new service centers for Medicare beneficiaries in more than a dozen Walgreens stores– a second partnership in as many years between the pharmacy giant and Minnetonka- based UnitedHealth Group, which is parent company to United’ s large health insurance business.

–Today eHealth, Inc. released a snapshot analysis of costs and trends among consumers purchasing Affordable Care Act plans through eHealth without the aid of government subsidies during the first half of open enrollment season. About eHealth eHealth, Inc. owns eHealth.com, a leading private online health insurance exchange where individuals, families and…

Nov. 25– Peter LaFrance was getting winded. The 57- year-old plumber initially dismissed his shortness of breath as an inevitable consequence of getting older and having smoked as a younger man. The situation became even more dire months later, when the bills for tests and scans during his nearly week-long hospital stay came and his insurance plan refused to pay,…

Nov. 24– It's time to sign up for health insurance. New York is still paying agencies to provide in-person “navigators” to help people sign up for a NY Marketplace plan. I couldn't tell where to go to do the application, “said tattoo artist Pat Dingman of Queensbury.

Think you'll be better off if Congress outlaws your private health coverage and puts you on a new government-run health plan called “Medicare for All”? Over half of House Democrats and 14 senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, say you will. Health care experts Ed Haislmaier and Jamie Hall, however, took a hard look at this claim in a new Heritage…

In my decades-long career in medicine, I have never seen a worse example of industrywide price gouging than surprise medical bills. These are expensive medical bills that patients receive when they are treated at a hospital or by a medical practitioner that is outside of their insurance's network of authorized health care providers. A hospital, for example,…
Pension buy-out sales continue to set records, LIMRA reports.

Year-to-date pension buy-out sales were $16.7 billion, more than 4% higher than the first nine months of 2018. There were 111 new buy-out contracts sold in the third quarter bringing the year-to-date total to 301 compared with 281 contracts sold in the first nine months of 2018. Half of the companies reported an increase in contracts sold.

Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D- Massachusetts, advocating for Medicare for All. On the moderate end sit South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden, both wary of requiring people to leave private insurance plans for a single-payer system. Sometime in the coming weeks or months, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in…

By taking a data-driven approach to understanding who is in-market, agents can reach their prospects and customers at the right time with the right message, improving acquisition, placement, cross-sell and retention.

Nov. 21– Philip Esformes, the Miami Beach healthcare mogul sentenced to 20 years in a massive Medicare fraud case, must pay more than $44 million to the taxpayer-funded program and U.S. government, a federal judge decided Thursday. Justice Department prosecutors urged U.S. After his arrest in 2016, Justice Department prosecutors touted Esformes' Medicare fraud…

The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration issued the following news release:. The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration today released its program results for Fiscal Year 2019. Under its Terminated Vested Participant Project, EBSA helped participants collect nearly $1.5 billion in…

Nov. 21– Ten California state agencies paid $20 million more for workers' compensation insurance than they could have had selected a different insurer, according to a California State Auditor's report published Thursday. The auditor's office looked at the insurance prices 10 of those 32 departments pay, finding the total was $20 million higher over a…

Florida was one of the nine most expensive states for premium contributions, which equated to 8% or more of the median income in 2018, according to a study released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York- based nonprofit that advocates for expanded health insurance coverage. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said the majority of…

Competition for employees is fierce, but if employers are trying to attract Gen Z to their workforce by focusing on perks like free avocado toast and ping-pong tables, they’ re going about it all wrong. A recent study from Lincoln Financial Group and the Center for Generational Kinetics shows that traditional benefits like retirement plans and insurance are more important.

Nov. 21– More middle-class worker income is going toward health care as rising insurance costs outpace wage growth in every state, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said in a news release. Households in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia were more likely to spend larger portions of their incomes on…

Elizabeth Warren is a woman of uncommon intelligence. Take, for example, the Massachusetts Democrat’s embarrassing retreat on “Medicare for All.” Remember, for example, how President Barack Obama and his congressional allies introduced his far-less-ambitious Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, in 2009 and barely got it passed in March of his second…

Elizabeth Warren likes to say,“ I have a plan for that.” Her plan to finance“ Medicare for All” doesn’ t add up. Perhaps that’ s why Warren is changing that plan. Bernie Sanders, who sponsored one of the Medicare For All bills, hasn’ t tried to explain how he would pay for this transformation of the American health care system that would abolish private insurance.

”an economic analysis by Kenneth E. Thorpe, Ph.D., PFCD Chairman and Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of Health Policy and Management at Emory University. Between 2016 and 2018, private insurance spending increased by $101 billion overall. At the same time, there was a $21.3 billion increase in insurance plan administration costs and profits and a $20.6…
Brokers need to make sure they are working with the right technology.
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Application Programing Interfaces can help benefits brokers manage their employer-clients’ data. But brokers must be sure the API technology they select will meet their clients’ needs.

After months of dialogue, the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have parted ways on Medicare price negotiations that Pelosi advocates and Trump— unlike most Republicans— once supported in principle. Instead Trump is backing a compromise bipartisan bill in the Senate, which does not give Medicare bargaining authority, but forces drugmakers to pay…

Nov. 17– Keith Meehan is on the hook for more than $230,000 in medical bills after his insurer denied his claims from back surgery earlier this year. The denial of benefits to Meehan and dozens of other Granite State residents by Aliera and Trinity has prompted New Hampshire officials to order the company to halt operations. Last month, Insurance Commissioner…

With a patchwork of policies to navigate, brokers have to provide guidance on the right mix of benefits while staying compliant with current laws. Although most employers offer a baseline of traditional paid leave benefits, such as paid time off and short-term disability, additional benefits can give employers the leg up they need to attract and retain top talent.

In June, PricewaterhouseCoopers got the guessing game started, publishing its closely-watched cost trend report for 2020, which predicts a 5 percent premium increase. The Society for Human Resource Management followed in August with an identical number. According to an annual employer health benefits survey published in September by Kaiser Family…

Those who drifted away from buying Covered California health insurance policies in 2019 because Congress dropped the tax penalties for going uninsured will face an entirely different situation in 2020.. It instituted statewide penalties very similar to those in the Affordable Care Act before Congress removed them in 2017.. The new state-level subsidies…

While strong majorities of consumers support proposals to lower the cost of prescription drugs, Americans are sharply split on “Medicare for All” proposals and on whether such proposals might ever become reality. Fewer than one third (31%) think it likely that such a program would be implemented; 48% consider it unlikely.

RALEIGH— When the Democratic Congress and the Obama administration enacted the Affordable Care Act a decade ago, the part that got the most attention was a set of insurance exchanges where Americans could enroll in private health plans with varying degrees of subsidy. A majority of justices of the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the mandate was…
Many seniors are worried about running out of money in retirement. Annuities are one option to prevent that from happening.

The Protected Lifetime Income Index study, a recent survey of 3,119 adults by the Alliance for Lifetime Income, shows that a mere 28% of non-retired Americans have made an effort to determine their likely monthly income needs in retirement —perhaps the single most important thing people should be planning for.

HealthPartners is closing 30 retail pharmacies as well as its mail-order pharmacy operations next year due to economic pressures that officials say give an advantage to larger operators in the industry. HealthPartners, which is a nonprofit health insurer that also runs clinics and hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin, said it will work with patients…

RADNOR, PA, – November 5, 2019 – Planning for long-term care needs has become an increasingly important topic as the…