Author: Martha Craver

Employers are grappling with holding down 2019 health insurance costs in a tight labor market. While expenses are likely to increase an average of 6% next year, employers are expected to tweak their plans to keep growth around 4%. That’s no small feat given the challenge these days to attract and retain workers. A recent survey by Mercer, a benefits consulting firm, found that two-thirds of workers say the health care a company offers is just as vital as pay when deciding where to work. So, employers will focus on strategies that don’t shift more costs to their employees but try to squeeze out more value for their dollars.

Managing high-cost patients is a top strategy, according to Mercer’s national survey of employer-sponsored health plans. Multimillion dollar claims for patients with complex medical issues are making up a bigger share of employers’ costs. More firms will offer patient advocate services to steer them to the right care at the right place at the right time. The idea is to avoid wasteful, unnecessary treatments while ensuring better care. “There may be five treatment options but maybe two or three have better outcomes,” says Sander Domaszewicz, a consultant with Mercer, a global consulting company. Paying for patients to get a second opinion is another popular move. Continue reading “How Employers are Managing Health Care Costs”

President Trump’s latest move to stop certain Obamacare subsidies to insurers will add more instability to an already fragile marketplace. The president’s decision to cut off the cost-sharing subsidies is the latest in a series of actions aimed at undermining the law. Payments are expected to stop as of November. Estimates put the loss for insurers at about $1.2 billion this year and $7 billion in 2018. The move comes just as insurers are regaining profitability after years of losses. Continue reading “Another Blow to Obamacare by Trump”

Expect a battle royal within the GOP ranks over health care. If the Senate passes its plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, odds are it would clear the House too and be signed into law by President Trump.

As expected, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bill is more moderate than the House version, in some respects. Medicaid expansion would be phased out more slowly than in the House legislation; people with pre-existing conditions would be protected; and there’s more financial assistance to lower-income Americans. Continue reading “Overhaul of Obamacare Edges Closer”

The war on cancer is on the verge of getting a number of new weapons. Many of them involve a novel approach known as immunotherapy, in which the body’s own immune system is engaged to fight the cancer.

One emerging immunotherapy treatment, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, could be approved this year. CAR-T therapy involves genetically altering a patient’s T-cells — a type of white blood cell — to help the immune system find and kill cancer cells. The modified cells are infused into the patient after they are altered in the lab. Continue reading “Promising Cancer Drugs Coming Soon”

There’s no doubt that changes are coming to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, now that the White House and both chambers of Congress are in Republican hands.

The big questions are what will replace it and when? Part of the uncertainty is that President-elect Trump has already said he won’t kill parts of the law that are popular with consumers, such as allowing children to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26 and requiring insurers to accept all comers, even those with preexisting conditions. The law also contains hundreds of provisions affecting Medicare, the health care workforce, prevention and many others that few associate with Obamacare. Continue reading “Changes to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare)”