"Health plan fiduciaries should heed the lessons learned by retirement plan fiduciaries during the retirement plan investment fee litigation and begin to apply them to their health plans. Such steps can help plan fiduciaries meet their obligations and provide clear rules and processes in selecting and monitoring plan service providers and their fees, and if properly done, could protect the plan, sponsor, and fiduciaries. [This article discusses] steps toward achieving that goal."  MORE >>

"HHS is in regular contact with [UnitedHealth Group (UHG)] leadership, state partners, and with numerous external stakeholders ... HHS has made clear its expectation that UHG does everything in its power to ensure continuity of operations for all health care providers impacted ... HHS is announcing immediate steps that [CMS] is taking to assist providers to continue to serve patients."  MORE >>

"[On March 5,] senior officials from across the Administration ... convened a listening session with leaders from across state government, the private sector, and community pharmacies to discuss President Biden's work to lower health care costs and hear ideas for bringing transparency to prescription drug middlemen.... Participants discussed a range of approaches that have been used to bring down costs across states and private employers.... Participants also discussed flaws in the current marketplace.... Several participants also highlighted how middlemen can affect independent pharmacies." [Also available: video of roundtable discussion]  MORE >>

"The White House plans to announce a new federal task force focused on easing health care costs ... Officials from the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services will be on the task force, focused on enforcement ... [D]rug pricing and health provider costs will be among the task force's central focus."  MORE >>

"Top employer health benefit priorities for 2024 are a focus on engagement in programs and use of benefits, chronic condition management, high-cost medical claims, and wellbeing/building a culture of health. Greatest threats to affordability of employer provided coverage are high-cost pharmacy claims, specialty drug costs, high-cost medical claims, and medical inflation.... Strategies for covering GLP-1 anti-obesity medications are covered with prior authorization (49% currently do so and 25% are considering), covering with risk stratification such as BMI and comorbidities, and not covering due to lack of evidence."  MORE >>

"The legislation, titled the Employer Reporting Act [HR 3801], is particularly important for smaller firms, some of which have had to defend themselves against erroneous Internal Revenue Service notices claiming they owe millions of dollars in penalties for not providing health coverage to their employees required by the Affordable Care Act."  MORE >>

"The big congressional spending deal that was unveiled this week with health policy attachments largely keeps the status quo for the two powerful industries, potentially leaving patients exposed to higher health costs."  MORE >>

"OCR received 30,435 complaints in 2022 -- about 11% fewer than in 2021.... OCR notes that it received 626 large breach notifications affecting approximately 41,747,613 individuals, with hacking incidents the most frequent type of breach and network servers the most frequent breach location. Almost 64,000 small breach notifications were reported affecting 257,105 individuals, with unauthorized access or disclosure the most frequent type of breach and paper records the most frequent breach location."  MORE >>

"Findings show that insurance status, and specifically the use of in-network benefits, is associated with superior retention and suggest that Medicaid disenrollment and insurance plan hesitation to engage with telehealth providers may undermine the nation's response to the opioid crisis."  MORE >>

"According to the lawsuit, Musk 'has a special ire toward' the company's former execs and has 'vowed a lifetime of revenge' against them.... The Plaintiffs lawyer argues that they were still protected by [ERISA] and that his 'scheme… was a pointless effort that would not withstand legal scrutiny.' " [Agrawal v. Musk, No. 24-1304 (N.D. Calif. complaint filed Mar. 4, 2024)]  MORE >>