How Workers and Employers Diverge on Wellness Programs
In this column for the Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman examines employer attitudes and the evidence on wellness programs.
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A new analysis of initial rate filings for Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans submitted by 312 insurers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia finds the median proposed increase for 2026 is 18%, more than double last year’s 7% median proposed increase. The proposed rates are preliminary and could change before being finalized in late summer. In addition to rising cost and utilization of services, insurers cited the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits as a significant factor in their rate hikes for next year.
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In this column for the Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman examines employer attitudes and the evidence on wellness programs.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation report examines private exchanges and how the approach could reshape employer-sponsored health insurance as it gains popularity. These private exchanges have gained currency as new health insurance marketplaces for individuals have begun operating under the Affordable Care Act, though the approaches are quite different.
This report summarizes experiences of Marketplace assistance programs as they helped consumers enroll in coverage during the first Open Enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act. Insights about what worked and where improvements could help are drawn from discussions of assisters and other experts who participated in a Consumer Assistance Roundtable, jointly sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in June, 2014.
The House COVID-19 relief proposal would temporarily lower what millions of Marketplace enrollees and uninsured potential enrollees would pay toward premiums and would provide states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs a financial boost that would more than offset their costs initially, two new KFF analyses find.
This analysis finds nearly three quarters of the largest health plans in each state are no longer waiving enrollees’ cost-sharing requirements for COVID-19 treatment as of August 2021. Insurers largely waived those costs early in the pandemic, before safe and effetive vaccines were available.
This data note estimates how tax credits premiums will change for people at various ages and incomes under the temporary boost in subsidies included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the COVID-19 relief plan signed into law in March 2021.
In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt examines how the No Surprises Act that prohibits unexpected out-of-network charges for patients could lead to lower payment rates and revenues for some doctors and other care providers.
In this commentary for Barron's, Cynthia Cox and Lindsey Dawson examine the cost and availability of at-home COVID-19 tests and how the new Biden administration policy requiring private insurances to cover their costs may work.
Less than a week after a new federal mandate to cover such products took effect, about half of the nation’s largest private insurers allow enrollees to directly obtain rapid at-home COVID-19 tests from specific sources without having to pay anything upfront, a new KFF analysis finds. The new coverage requirement took effect Jan.
About half of emergency ground ambulance rides result in an out-of-network charge for people with private health insurance, potentially leaving patients at risk of getting a surprise bill, a new KFF analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker finds.
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