Wellness

Caffeine levels should be reduced in energy drinks because of health risks, particularly to children, doctors wrote the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Funding for Alzheimer’s has lagged behind other medical issues, advocates say, and the disease is now the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Without breakthroughs, the number of those affected aged 65 and older will double by 2050.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for legislation to make New York the first U.S. city to require stores to conceal tobacco products, a week after a court struck down his ban on the sale of large sugary beverages.

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction on PPACA’s contraception requirement, saying an employer’s First Amendment rights could be irreparably harmed if the mandate was enforced while a lawsuit was pending.

Despite the progress made through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on health care access, there are challenges to come from health reform, said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisc.) Thursday at the AHIP National Policy Forum in Washington.

Governors who refuse to expand their Medicaid programs for the poor may cost employers in their states as much as $1.3 billion in federal fines, according to a new study.

Most brokers who plan to stay in the industry in 2014 are learning to embrace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But as two health policy minds from opposite sides of the political spectrum discussed Wednesday at America’s Health Insurance Plans conference in Washington, unknown effects of PPACA and rising costs of health care should still be on the minds of carriers and brokers alike.

The MLR regulations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are misguided, according to AHIP attendees. An engaged crowd at Wednesday’s America’s Health Insurance Plans conference in Washington listened to a panel dissect this issue from what the speakers said were unfounded claims of carrier profitability by the government, to the restrictions placed on innovation as a result of high ratio requirements.

The number of employers offering a sponsored retirement plan slightly increased in 2012 from four years prior, while matches and employer contributions remained near constant, according to a survey released today by WorldatWork and the American Benefits Institute.

Older U.S. adults may get too many colonoscopies, costing Medicare an estimated $500 million a year and putting patients at an increased risk of side effects such as bleeding, researchers found.