While 70% of hospitals are compliant with the federal price transparency rule, the feds have sent more than 900 warning letters to hospitals about their posted data, with four hospitals fined for non-compliance.

While Biden's proposed regs on short-term plans are likely to go into effect this year or early next, the House-passed CHOICE Arrangement Act – a "cash for coverage" option — is unlikely to win favor in the Senate.

Hospitals, insurers like Aetna-CVS Health and corporate giants like Amazon are on a buying spree, snapping up primary care practices, furthering a move away from the neighborhood doctor.

Insurers and employers are expected to be reluctant or even unable to immediately begin charging copays or deductibles for the affected preventive care for certain services, such as screening for diabetes, hepatitis and certain cancers.

Many insurers are offering smaller networks of doctors and hospitals, and problems arise when patients cannot find local in-network providers and must pay more for out-of-network care or travel farther for in-network care.

If half of adults get COVID boosters at the new, higher prices, insurers, employers, and other payors would shell out $12.4 billion to $14.8 billion a year, a recent KFF report estimated.

The latest twist in a long-running dispute between the drug industry and insurers over which group is more to blame for rising costs to patients. And patients are, again, caught in the middle.

Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas says one way that preventive services are selected for the no-cost coverage is unconstitutional.