Healthcare

People with health insurance saw increases in their medical costs slow from 2009 to 2011, signaling potential structural changes in the industry that could cut health care inflation and save the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two studies.

The Illinois House of Representatives approved a bill designed to repair the nation’s worst-funded pension system by raising contribution levels for state employees and delaying the retirement age.

The suit, filed last week in federal court in Washington, revolves around an Internal Revenue Service rule that provides tax credits for people shopping for health insurance on new government-run marketplaces, called exchanges, regardless of where they live.

Countless pieces of legislation are introduced in Washington each year and nothing is done with them. As NAHU pushes for a hearing on the MLR bill in the Senate, what are its chances?

Republicans and the drug industry have urged a repeal of the board, and Obama hasn’t yet appointed any of its members. A spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s Washington-based lobbying group, didn’t immediately comment on the decision.

According to this week’s 401(k) Performance Survey, approximately 5% of 401(k) plans, or 13,811 plans, stopped matching in 2010, and an additional 2% halted the employer match in 2011.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. climbed in New York trading yesterday after profit beat estimates and the insurer’s margins widened.

Of the 12 cancer medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year, 11 cost more than $100,000 annually, the physicians said in an article in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, published online.

While the issue affects only a limited number of employees, it can result in significant costs for companies that have to move workers out of the U.S. or in lost productivity from dealing with an employee’s or partner’s immigration status.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is taking a firm stand on the discussion about how the navigators' role varies from brokers and agents - they're different. After testifying before an April hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, part of CMS, told EBA that navigators will be supplying objective information, while brokers will continue in their role of advising. "They are not making recommendations, they're not selling," Cohen said about navigators.