Photo illustration by Getty ImagesPatient advocates are watching to see which pharmaceutical products will be on the list of medications for federal officials to target when they open negotiations later this year with drug manufacturers over the price of prescriptions. A new federal law clearing the way for administrators of the federal Medicare program to negotiate the price of…
WASHINGTON– The warnings have been sounded for more than a year: A recession is going to hit the United States. Despite much higher borrowing costs, thanks to the Federal Reserve's aggressive streak of interest rate hikes, consumers keep spending, and employers keep hiring. And so does the belief among some economists that the United States might actually…
–A Florida pension fund is demanding Wells Fargo& Co. turn over files about a possible criminal probe into whether the bank violated federal law by setting up fake job interviews to meet in-house diversity guidelines. Lawyers for the Pompano Beach General Employees Retirement System, which holds Wells Fargo stock, said Monday it wants the files“ to investigate…
The US banking system remains solid and resilient, while the tensions that affected the sector last spring have eased, according to the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, for whom the resilience of the financial system cannot be taken for granted. "We cannot take the resilience of the financial system for granted," warned the US central banker…
The disappearance of a few million people from the U.S. labor force has been a striking feature of the pandemic era, and economists attribute part of it to people retiring early, along with a drop in immigration and the effects of long COVID. Miguel Faria e Castro, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and colleague Samuel Jordan-Wood estimate that…
A Federal Reserve police officer guarding the entrance to the Federal Reserve’s William McChesney Martin Building in Washington, D.C. Photo by Alex Wong | Getty Images WASHINGTON — U.S. senators on a panel with jurisdiction over banking regulations on Wednesday approved a bipartisan bill that would allow government officials to “claw back” compensation from banking…
United Healthcare warned Tuesday of higher medical costs stemming from Americans catching up on care that was delayed by the pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, elective procedures at Holland Hospital in Western Michigan ground to a complete halt, according to chief financial officer Alex Roehling. Half of them get coverage through Medicare Advantage…
That is the conclusion from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services National Health Expenditure Projections. The paper–published in Health Affairs—summarizes the spending changes as follows: National health expenditures are projected to grow 5.4 percent, on average, over the course of 2022–31 and to account for roughly 20 percent of the economy by the end of that…
Data: Health Affairs; Chart: Alice Feng/AxiosA surge of Medicare spending on hospitals and other services later this decade will push U.S. health care expenditures to outpace inflation and top $7.2 trillion by 2031, federal actuaries said on Wednesday.Why it matters: The new projections show medical spending across all categories rebounding from the pandemic doldrums, with…
Municipal workers retirees protest proposed changes to medical benefits at City Hall park on Feb. 14, 2022. The company submitted a petition on Tuesday to intervene in a lawsuit that New York City retirees filed against the city and Mayor Eric Adams in Manhattan Supreme Court last month. [ more › ]
This is the case with the most recent episode of the long-running soap opera set in Washington- its roughly biennial debt ceiling drama- which is slowly heading for a conclusion that is expected to be brief. After threatening the world with sovereign debt default and financial disaster in order to achieve their goals, congressional Republicans won moderate…
After oscillating near yesterday's adjustments and without a definite signal throughout the session, interest rate futures settled in a bearish bias as of 4 pm, following the improvement in risk appetite abroad, in turn, amid increased bets on more "dovish" actions by the Federal Reserve. However, in general, the rates have been oscillating in a marginal way since…
Now a judge has sentenced her to 11 years in prison for the crimes of swindling, wire fraud and conspiracy to deceive investors through her company Theranos. A story worthy of a Hollywood script that HBO has already made profitable with its documentary ¨The inventor: Out of blood in Silicon Valley¨. At the age of 19, the now convict abandoned her studies at the…
It's a combination of income and safety that's been hard to come by, said Brad Huffman, a financial planner with Future Finances in Columbus. Huntington Bancshares, for example, is advertising a promotion on a 14- month CD that yields a 5.18% annual percentage yield. Credit goes to the Federal Reserve, which has been aggressively raising interest rates in…
The members of the U.S. Federal Reserve view with "less certainty" the pace at which policy rate hikes should take place from now on, opening the door to a pause, although they remarked that inflation remains above their 2% target. At the meeting, which took place in early May, the U.S. central bank decided to raise the policy rate by 0.25 points to a range of 5% to 5.25%, its…
The Federal Reserve's forcefulness in raising interest rates, the latest economic data and, particularly, the banking crisis that has resulted in the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank or First Republic, have led to fears of an impact on GDP due to reduced access to financing. One of the latest to sound the alarm has been an indicator often used by…
In addition, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. According to a recent study by MyLendingTree, a real estate company that focuses on buying and selling, refinancing and insurance, Georgia and Maryland top the list of states where people have the hardest time dealing with their personal liabilities. In the former, the average person has $45,778 in…
Consumer credit card debt has hit record highs. In fact, the Federal Reserve reports that American consumers have amassed nearly $1 trillion in credit card debt. This worrying trend is not only financially unsustainable for individuals but also for the economy as a whole.
Providers who had their hands full treating COVID patients stopped doing routine procedures and nonemergency operations, while many members stayed away because of fear of infection. That’s why health insurers must pay members $1.1 billion in premium rebates this year.
