Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Specialty Drug Costs Are Top Reason Insurance Will Be More Expensive Next Year, Survey Finds
The cost of getting your health insurance through work will go up an average of 5 percent next year, according to a new survey of large employers by the National Business Group on Health. The cost for employers will go up 6 percent. This is the third consecutive year that employers鈥 health costs have risen by 6 percent. While that鈥檚 still more six times the current rate of inflation, it鈥檚 likely a smaller increase than will be experienced by consumers who purchase insurance through the public exchanges. (Braverman, 8/10)
Earlier, related KHN coverage:聽聽(Hancock, 8/9).
Men with testicular cancer, who are without insurance or on Medicaid (government insurance for low-income patients), tend to have more advanced disease upon diagnosis, larger tumors and a greater risk of dying, compared with聽those who have private聽insurance, according to researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. While testicular cancer is curable for most patients, even when it has spread, delaying treatment can lead to more advanced, and potentially fatal, disease, researchers write. That's why removing barriers 鈥 to both medical care and financing treatment 鈥 should be "an important part of the war on cancer," says Christopher Sweeney, a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and lead author of the study, published online this week in the journal Cancer. (Zimmerman, 8/9)
Piedmont on Tuesday announced the contract agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, the state鈥檚 largest insurer. It comes just weeks after Piedmont and UnitedHealthcare failed to reach a new contract. Piedmont hospitals and physicians have been 鈥渙ut of network鈥 for tens of thousands of United members in Georgia since July 1. (Miller, 8/10)
A New Port Richey pharmacy is at the center of a federal indictment that accuses eight people of obtaining millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements from private insurance companies, Medicare and the Tricare military health care program...According to the indictment, unsealed Tuesday, the co-conspirators used A to Z Pharmacy Inc. in New Port Richey and several Miami-area pharmacies to submit false claims for prescription compounded medications. (8/10)
