Consumer Driven Health Care

HCA Healthcare, the nation's largest hospital chain, and UnitedHealthcare finalized their contract terms, keeping patients in-network in Texas, Colorado, South Carolina, and New Hampshire.

The Heartland Institute also wants state policymakers to support telemedicine and reference-based pricing.

The three largest PBMs, including CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx, "handle 79% of U.S. medical prescriptions for approximately 270 million people."

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care labor market faced challenges, with the demand for professionals outpacing supply.

On average, Marketplace enrollees had access to 40% of the doctors near their home through their plan's network, with considerable variation around the average.

Employers generally turn to direct contracting expecting lower costs, shared savings, and easy implementation. Most respondents reported expecting savings between 6% to 20%.