A new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute says self-insurance is a huge trend in employer-sponsored coverage that could become more pronounced in the wake of the health care law. Read more »
Karen Davis, who is leaving The Commonwealth Fund after serving as its president for two decades, is returning to Johns Hopkins University. Starting Jan. 1, she will be director of the Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care. Read more »
Under a proposed rule released last week, insurers that want to offer a national multistate plan would be allowed to phase in their participation in all 50 states over four years. In the first year, the plans would only have to operate in 31 states. Read more »
There's a lot happening in coming weeks to implement the health care law that has nothing to do with what everyone has been talking about in recent days—standing up health insurance exchanges, expanding Medicaid, and establishing a new regulatory structure for the insurance market. Read more »
It's state budget submission season for governors, and as they struggle with whether to expand their Medicaid programs under the health care law, some policy experts recently said that each state leader is crunching the numbers and trying to decide what makes the most financial sense. Read more »
State officials who are hoping to avoid high Medicaid costs from the health care law by not expanding the program might be in for an unpleasant discovery: Other Medicaid-related mandates in the overhaul will mean higher state spending regardless of whether a state expands, according to a state-by-state analysis the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation released last week. Read more »