Three of Oregons largest hospital systems are suing the state over its alleged lack of adequate mental health care, which they say has forced them to house patients in need of mental health treatment for months.
The U.S. Senate on Sept. 29 confirmed President Joe Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Labor office that regulates employee benefit plans, a few months after lawmakers initially rejected her nomination.
Rite Aid Corp. reported a quarterly loss of more than $300 million amid store closures and fewer customers coming to the drugstore for COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
The City of Memphis, Tennessee, is restoring a legacy pension plan for public safety employees.
Among major health insurers, customers are most satisfied with the telehealth offerings from Humana Inc. and Aetna Inc., according to a survey from J.D. Power.
Wells Fargo & Co., former CEO Tim Sloan, GreatBanc Trust Company and the employee benefit review committee and its members have been sued for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty to participants saving for retirement in the Wells Fargo 401(k) and employee stock ownership plans.
About 43% of working-age adults were inadequately insured in 2022, meaning they were either uninsured, had a coverage gap in the past year or had unaffordable coverage, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey.
Texas Health Resources and UT Southwestern Medical Center are seeking an increase of more than $900 million over the next 32 months in contracts talks with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, according to an email the insurer shared with brokers in late September.
The fall in the equities markets this month has walloped the funding levels of large corporate pension plans, according to a Mercer L.L.C. analysis. The average funding level of pension plans sponsored by companies in the S&P 1500 plunged by 10 percentage points during the first six trading days of August to close at 73% […]
Self-funding health care for employees can be an effective money-saving tool for mid-market employers. However, failing to thoroughly account for high-risk employees can quickly sabotage a self-insured plan, as one employer learned. Stop-loss insurance can provide relief in the event of a catastrophic claim, but smaller companies should expect carriers to insist on higher attachment […]
SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco lawmakers voted Tuesday to drop a measure that would have modified one way that employers can satisfy a city law requiring them to spend a certain amount of money on employee health care coverage. Under the law, employers with 100 or more employees are required to spend $2.06 per covered employee on […]
WASHINGTON—Senate Democratic and Republican leaders agreed on a new approach to consider legislation to increase federal health insurance premium subsidies for employees who lose their jobs due to foreign competition and older retirees in failed pension plans. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., previously proposed, with support from the Obama administration, increasing the Health […]
NEW YORK (Reuters)—CIGNA Corp. posted a higher-than-expected second-quarter profit on Thursday on strength in its main U.S. health care plans, and the insurer raised its full-year forecast. Several analysts described CIGNA’s new 2011 forecast range—which incorporates Wall Street’s target—as conservative. “We expect there is still modest conservatism in operating earnings guidance as well and see […]
WASHINGTON—The Census Bureau next month will release its annual report on the number of people in the United States without health insurance, with attention focused on whether the improvement in the economy in 2010 made a dent in reducing the uninsured population. The report will be released Sept. 13. In 2009, the number of uninsured […]
CHICAGO (Reuters)—CVS Caremark Corp. posted a slightly better-than-expected profit on Thursday, aided by strength at its drugstores, where it kept costs under control and sold more generic drugs. CVS, which also runs a major pharmacy benefits management business, narrowed its full-year forecast toward the high end of its prior expectations and said it remains confident […]
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The official charged with overseeing the creation of U.S. state-based health insurance exchanges is stepping down at a critical juncture for the Obama administration’s health care overhaul. Joel Ario, director of health insurance exchanges at the Department of Health and Human Services, is leaving his job just as states begin to get guidelines for […]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters)—Health insurer Humana Inc. posted a higher-than-expected second-quarter profit, helped by growth in its Medicare plans for senior citizens, and it raised its full-year earnings forecast by about 11%. The company said it would spend less than it previously expected on medical costs as a percent of revenue, helping boost its 2011 profit […]
WASHINGTON—Group health care plans would have to provide full coverage—with neither copayments nor deductibles—for a wide range of women’s preventive services under rules issued Monday. The rules stemming from the 2010 health care reform law and jointly issued by the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury, require full coverage with no plan […]
A health care reform law provision that requires employers to extend coverage to employees’ adult children up to age 26 has boosted plan enrollment by an average of 2%, according to a Mercer L.L.C. survey released Monday. That reform law provision, which went into effect on Jan. 1 for most employers, required virtually every employer […]
Less than one-third of the largest U.S. employers now offer a defined benefit pension plan to new salaried employees, with the move away from the plans accelerating in recent years, according to new research. As of May 31, 30% of Fortune 100 companies offered a defined benefit plan to new salaried employees, according to New […]
An employee at the Norfolk Community Services Board in Virginia reportedly collected nearly $320,000 plus benefits during the 12 years she remained on the payroll but did not report for work. Office assistant Jill McGlone had been suspended for reportedly revealing confidential medical information. Her situation came to light when the new executive director discovered […]
WASHINGTON—The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is taking over the underfunded pension plan of Alabama Aircraft Industries Inc., a Birmingham-based aircraft maintenance provider that filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year. The plan, which has about 3,000 participants, has $82.4 million in assets and $142.8 million in liabilities. The PBGC said Friday in a statement that […]
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Coventry Health Care Inc. posted better-than-expected second-quarter earnings Friday, helped by membership gains, and the insurer raised its full-year forecast. Net income was $224.5 million, or $1.51 per share, compared with $1.02 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier, when a litigation charge dragged down results. Excluding a benefits from a […]