Core and Group Health

Thousands of unlucky employees at e-commerce companies acquired by Walmart over the last year are seeing their health insurance benefits slashed and prices soaring.

The American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, Americas Essential Hospitals and others filed suit on Nov. 13,over the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' decision to slash funding for the program by 28 percent.

Health care systems contain Social Security numbers, bank statements, financial history, drivers licenses and more information that unscrupulous third parties can use to falsify prescriptions, sell the scripts on the black market, or obtain them for personal use.

Experts and regulators are raising red flags about one set of limited benefit plans marketed to individuals as ACA coverage for as little as $93 a month. Such plans could leave buyers incorrectly thinking they are exempt from paying a penalty for not having coverage.

Officials at the Employee Benefits Security Administration announced that they will postpone the effective date of the new regulations 90 days, to April 1, 2018, and only 90 days, to review information on the potential impact of the regulations on the group disability market.

Pharmaceutical companies have introduced new medicines to treat dependence, reverse overdoses, and deal with opioids side effects, but few effective alternatives to addictive painkillers have emerged from the laboratory.