The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified Congress on Sunday that it may need to transfer millions of dollars of funding in its budget to respond to the coronavirus. HHS could shift up to $136 million to key agencies responding to the coronavirus, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An HHS spokesperson said the…
In the past week, I have received more than a dozen phony calls on my cell phone warning me about “suspicious activity” in my Social Security account and threatening to cut off my benefits if I don’t return the call. Luckily, I know they’re fake calls and I just hang up, but thousands of vulnerable…
Health insurers are expected to make it more difficult on Presidential candidates pushing single payer versions of “Medicare for All” after they added hundreds of thousands of seniors to their private Medicare Advantage plans this year. New benefits for seniors under Medicare Advantage began Wednesday, the first day of the 2020 New Year, in what…
California wants to become the first state to create its own prescription drug label, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday morning. As part of his 2020-2021 budget, Newsom wants to create the first-ever state generic drug label as part of a series of sweeping proposals designed to lower the cost of health care in the Golden State. He…
More U.S. retirement savers should probably buy ordinary annuities before they retire, but they don’t, and policymakers need to come up with an alternative, according to Alicia Munnell, a top academic retirement policy researcher. Munnell — director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College — says she thinks promoting use of “Social Security bridge” arrangements may be…
Walmart is expanding benefits available through its telehealth program, which offers associates $4 virtual care visits through the retail giant’s partnership with Doctor on Demand, to employees in Colorado, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The expanded telehealth program went live Jan. 1 and allows associates in Colorado, Minnesota and Wisconsin to access a new Doctor on Demand…
When the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, it will not only usher in a new decade. It will also bring in a host of retirement changes. And that could have big implications for your money. The good news is that you will be able to save even more in your retirement accounts next year,…
On December 31, 2019, a three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the methodology adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to administer the risk adjustment program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A district court in New Mexico had previously concluded that part of the methodology—the use of statewide average premiums—was arbitrary…