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.
(Reuters)—Cheaper generic drugs will continue to hold down costs for the U.S. government, insurers and patients enrolled in the federal prescription drug benefit, according to a report released Friday. Researchers said eight of the 10 most commonly prescribed drug classes covered by the program known as Medicare Part D fell to an average daily cost […]
The average cost of group health insurance premiums for family coverage in the nation’s 10 largest states was highest in Florida and lowest in Ohio, according to a new analysis. The cost of family coverage in Florida last year averaged $15,032 per employee in 2010, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality […]
WASHINGTON—The Department of Health and Human Services in June approved 39 one-year waivers—mostly for mini-med plan sponsors—from meeting a health care reform requirement that first restricts and ultimately eliminates annual dollar limits for essential benefits. HHS said on Friday that through the end of June, 1,471 waivers had been approved for plans with about 3.2 […]
LANSING, Mich.—Top Michigan lawmakers agreed Wednesday to set up a conference committee to resolve differences in House- and Senate-passed bills that would increase how much public employees would have to pay for health care insurance coverage. Under Senate-passed bill S.B. 7, employees would be required to pay 20% of the health insurance premium, the same […]
WASHINGTON—The Labor Department said Wednesday that it will give employers with 401(k) and other participant-directed individual account plans more time to comply with a rule requiring the disclosure of fees and expenses of investment options offered by the plans. While the effective date for calendar-year plans remains Jan. 1, 2012, employers will have until May […]
HELENA, Mont.—A 77-year-old Social Security recipient is entitled to seek vocational rehabilitation benefits designed to help disabled workers re-enter the workforce, Montana’s Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision. The state high court in Harold Caldwell vs. MACo Workers’ Compensation Trust on Monday upheld a workers comp court finding that a state law terminating […]
HONOLULU—Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has signed legislation to assure the continuation of the state’s health care reform law. The measure the governor signed Tuesday removes all references in the 1974 state law that called for termination of the Hawaii reform law upon enactment of federal health care reform legislation at least equal to the Hawaii […]
WASHINGTON—Two Republican Senate leaders have asked the Institute of Medicine this week to include estimated cost increases in health insurance premiums within the calculations it is required to produce for coming standardized health insurance packages. The request by Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., ranking member on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Orrin Hatch, […]
WASHINGTON—The Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services say they plan to conduct a survey that asks employers to evaluate their wellness programs. The survey is intended to “assess the effectiveness and impact of workplace wellness programs, as well as identify best practices and lessons learned in program implementation with a particular focus on […]
The funding levels of pension plans sponsored by large, publicly held U.S. employers rose slightly June and were significantly higher than the end of last year, Milliman Inc. said in an analysis. Defined benefit plans offered by the 100 U.S. employers with the largest pension programs were on average 87.0% funded as of June 30. […]
WASHINGTON—States have the authority to decide whether large employers can purchase coverage through new state health insurance exchanges starting in 2017, according to health care reform regulations that were issued Monday. The exchanges are a pivotal part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Starting in 2014, they will be available to individuals, especially […]
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Deficit-reduction negotiators are looking at imposing new limits on existing tax breaks for employer-provided health insurance, a senior Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Friday. “I think limiting the deduction for the higher income brackets is something that is on the table” in the negotiations, Rep. Sander Levin-D-Mich., told Reuters. Levin […]
ST. PAUL, Minn.—A budget stalemate in Minnesota that has shut down much of state government also is delaying a tax change to enable employers to extend coverage to employees’ adult children without employees facing state taxes on the coverage. Under the federal health care reform law, employers must offer coverage to employees’ adult children up […]
NORWALK, Conn.—Public pension plans will be required to highlight net unfunded liabilities on their balance sheets and will have less time to expense them under draft rules issued Friday by the Government Accounting Standards Board. The draft GASB rules also would require underfunded public plans to use a more conservative 30-year municipal bond index rate, […]
MADISON, Wis.—Budget legislation that has been signed into law requires Wisconsin regulators to examine the feasibility of offering state employees a high-deductible health insurance plan linked to health savings accounts. Under A.B. 40, which Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law last month, the director of state employment relations and the secretary of employee trust […]