The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it is implementing measures to expand access to “more affordable” catastrophic health coverage through its new hardship exemption guidance. “More Americans will be able to qualify for catastrophic health coverage based on need, beginning November 1, with the start of open enrollment,” the announcement…

For the 2026 health insurance plan year, a recent survey of health plan actuaries projected that the medical cost growth trend will remain at 8.5% for the group plan market and at 7.5% for the individual plan market. These are the same as 2025, the report stated. Medical cost trend was defined by the report…

Blue Shield of California announced the availability of a new digital pharmacy price check tool within the Blue Shield mobile app to allow members to immediately view the out-of-pocket price of any new or renewed prescription medications ordered by their clinician and covered by their pharmacy benefit plan. The Price Check My Rx dashboard provides…

Positive Development, Inc., which provides developmental therapy for children with autism and their families, closed a $51.5 million Series C funding round. The company plans to use the funding to expand its care model into new markets and within existing markets. The company plans to invest in new health plan and state Medicaid partnerships, and…

Meridian Health Plan of Michigan, Inc. (Meridian), a managed care organization in Michigan, announced its partnership with McLaren Health Care. This collaboration will expand access to high-quality medical services for over 500,000 Meridian members in plans across the state, the announcement stated. Effective August 15, 2025, Meridian members enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, Dual, and Marketplace…

Molina Healthcare of Illinois (Molina), in collaboration with The MolinaCares Accord (MolinaCares), invested over $1.6 million in support of local community organizations to improve health outcomes in Illinois. Together with community partners, Molina is working to enhance and create programs designed to address community health needs, increase access to care, improve behavioral health and maternal…

Arbital Health, a healthcare technology and actuarial leader that centralizes, measures, and adjudicates value-based care contracts at scale, announced its strategic partnership with Aligned Marketplace, an advanced primary care marketplace for self-insured employers. Arbital Health’s platform will enable Aligned Marketplace to support its advanced primary care model through better value-based contracting. Over the past year,…

About 89% of Medicare beneficiaries in 2024 lived in a county where at least half of beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans sponsored by only one or two insurers, making the market share highly concentrated, according to a recent analysis. About 4% of beneficiaries lived in a county considered a very highly concentrated market,…

Employers plan to shift more health care plan costs to employees for the 2026 plan year, according to a survey by Mercer, which is part of Marsh McLennan, a global leader in risk, strategy, and people. Employers projected that average health benefit costs for the 2025 plan year will increase about 5.8% compared to costs…

Priority Health, a Michigan-based health plan serving more than 1.3 million members, and Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire (the Cooperative), a community-based health plan in Wisconsin serving more than 61,000 members, announced plans for Priority Health to become the governing member of the Cooperative. The agreement with the Cooperative will make Priority Health a…