Small group coverage did not pursue the trends that many experts anticipated after the Affordable Care Act went into effect. From 2013 to 2020, small group coverage has maintained a fairly stable environment, researchers from the Urban Institute found. The researchers used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) in order to assess changes […]
In one of the biggest attempts by the federal government to combat surprise medical billing, Congress in late 2020 passed the No Surprises Act (NSA), which imposes a host of new transparency and coverage requirements for employer-sponsored group health plans. Many of the most significant coverage changes were required to be implemented on Jan. […]
Affordable Care Act enrollment for 2022 and public payer enrollment midway through 2021 saw some record-breaking surges. In 2020 and 2021, public payer and Affordable Care Act marketplaces experienced major disruptions and changes that continue to have ripple effects. The year that the pandemic struck, Medicaid and CHIP enrollment escalated for the first time in […]
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people often relied on telemedicine for doctor visits. Now, insurers are betting that some patients liked it enough to embrace new types of health coverage that encourages video visits — or outright insists on them. Priority Health in Michigan, for example, offers coverage requiring online visits first […]
Health insurance industry consolidation continued to increase, restricting consumers’ options for coverage, an American Medical Association report argued. “As merger rumors involving health insurers swirl, the prospect of future consolidation in the health insurance industry should be more closely scrutinized given the low levels of competition in most health insurance markets,” Gerald E. Harmon, […]
UnitedHealth Group, Anthem, Aetna, and Cigna returned to the list of the top five largest health insurers and one newcomer joined the list. UnitedHealth Group, Anthem, Aetna, and Cigna held onto their status as the top four largest insurers, but in 2020 Kaiser rose to fifth place. AMA was careful to point out that data […]
In nearly two decades, the overall concentration of healthcare spending has remained steady, but there has been an increase in the concentration of prescription drug spending, according to a study in JAMA Network Open. To find the concentration curves of cumulative percentage of healthcare spending versus percentage of ranked population, researchers analyzed data sets from […]
HHS has announced that 2.8 million people gained health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace during the special enrollment period. This influx of enrollees raised marketplace enrollment to 12.2 million, the highest enrollment level that these marketplaces have ever seen. “It’s clear that when health coverage is accessible and affordable, people sign up, […]
It would lengthen the annual open enrollment period, expand the role of navigators and nix Trump-era guidelines for waivers that were criticized for allowing states to skirt coverage requirements. The Biden administration is planning to restore key parts of the Affordable Care Act that were pared back by the Trump administration as the current HHS […]
The Supreme Court’s decision in California v Texas ended one lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act but may have left room for future legal action. Since the Supreme Court dismissed California v Texas on June 17, payers and healthcare leaders have vocalized their support for the decision, their readiness to continue building on the Affordable […]