In response to a 2019 study showing that millions of patients fail to receive required medical care due to a lack of transportation, ride-sharing company Lyft is partnering with sponsoring
healthcare organizations to let patients request rides for non-emer- gency medical appointments, vaccinations or prescription pickups. While the company tried this previ- ously with employers covering the cost for employees, these “Lyft Passes,” similar to those used to provide rides to and from Covid-19 vaccinations, would be sponsored by health plans including Medicare and Medicaid.
New guidelines issued by CMS earlier this Spring state that all files uploaded by health plans and insurance carriers must be in formats the public can use. Before issuing this guidance, some files included coding that kept Google and other search engines from indexing names and prices listed by hospitals on their websites, making it very hard for consumers to access the data.
While former President Trump signed the No Surprises Act into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, CMS is still working on regulations that will become effective for insured and self-funded health plan years that begin on or after Jan. 1, 2022. Implementing this law will be interesting, experts say. While many of its provisions were designed to protect people from getting unexpected bills for care from out-of-network providers at in-network hospitals and surprise bills from out-of-network emergency care providers including air ambulance services, many types of bills that “surprise” consumers may indeed be outside the scope of the Act.
In an effort to revive an important promise made to the American people prior to his election in 2016, President Trump recently signed 3 executive orders aimed at bringing the cost of prescription drugs more in line with what consumers in other countries pay. One order, directed at Medicare Part D plans, would require that PBMs pass discounts or manufacturer’s rebates directly to consumers rather than to their health plans.
Inflation-adjusted limits for contributions to health savings accounts and high deductible health plans for the coming year were just announced. According to the announcement, eligible individuals with self-only HDHP coverage will be able to contribute $3,600 to their HSA in 2021, an increase of $50 from 2020. Those with family coverage will be able to contribute $7,200 in 2021 and those who are 55 years of age or older will be able to make an additional “catch-up” contribution of $1,000 to their HSA.
America’s Health Insurance Plans, a national trade association whose member companies provide insurance coverage and health-related services to consumers and businesses, has released a study revealing the breakdown of today’s healthcare premium dollar, as follows:
As reported by The Phia Group on March 29, 2019, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled that the new Department of Labor rules expanding the marketing of Association Health Plans (AHPs) violate existing law. TPAs, brokers and employers see this as a significant blow to AHPs, especially new self-funded AHPs that have been preparing to launch on April 1, 2019.
There is a lot of misinformation surrounding medical cannabis, which can make it difficult to establish a plan document that accurately outlines its use. One particular obstacle is the lack of verified and sourced research regarding the medicinal use of cannabis, creating confusion around what the drug can and should be used for.
In October, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would ease the ACA reporting mandates for employer-sponsored health plans. The bill would roll back the reporting requirements of Section 6056 and replace them with a voluntary reporting system. The bill would also allow payers to transmit employee notices electronically rather than having to send paper statements by mail.
The gradual transition to high deductible health plans is having a significant impact on out-of-pocket costs, according to a study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust. In 2016, for the first time, just over half of all workers (51%) with single coverage faced a deductible of at least $1,000. The study also showed that 29% of workers were in high-deductible plans compared to just 20% two years earlier.
