Consumer Driven Health Care

The American health care system is far from perfect, but there's no simple solution on how to reform. At BenefitsPRO Broker Expo in Denver Tuesday, a panel of experts all agreed patients deserve better health education and care, but their opinions varied on the solutions.

Consolidation in health care has evolved and hiring people who can "help us look under the hood" of some inscrutable algorithms was a priority, said Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

A coalition of 17 state attorneys general sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over a new rule mandating that most employers offer "reasonable accommodations" to workers related to time off for an abortion.

Although the FTC estimates that the final rule will increase health care worker earnings by $300 million annually, the American Hospital Association highlighted retention difficulties in the for-profit portion of the hospital sector.

Kaiser Permanente, which operates 40 hospitals and 618 medical facilities, reported the breach, which stems from tracking technology that shared patient information with advertisers such as Microsoft and Google.

The new dispute resolution process is designed to use government officials to oversee disagreements, however, lobby group PhRMA said the new process "panders to 340B hospitals" while ignoring drugmakers' concerns.

Eli Lilly had agreed to cap the price of insulin at $35 per month for 4 years and provide a $13.5 million cash fund, however, a dozen state attorneys general, some with their own insulin lawsuits, had objected to the settlement.

Elevance Health, which is the parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Health insurance plans in 14 states, has partnered with a private equity firm, forging a new offering that will take a whole health approach to primary care.