first100days

Study Says Median Exchange Hike Will Be 14% Thus Far A Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker analysis finds that preliminary rate filings in the Exchanges will mean a median premium rate hike of 14% in 2027. This follows a final median hike of 20% in 2026 after plan switches. This would amount to a one-third increase over two years. While most of the hike will be covered by premium subsidy increases, the hikes will hurt those with little or no subsidy. Peterson-KFF looked at 77 insurers across 16 states and the District of Columbia. The healthcare duo calculated the enrollment-weighted average rate change across its offerings in a state. Most plans are requesting increases of between 10% and 20% for the coming year, though 20 payers have requested an increase of more than 20%. Plans say factors such as high medical costs, the expiration of enhanced exchange subsidies, and tighter enrollment

Pharmacy Group Alleges Price Fixing A community pharmacy group has filed suit against Prime Therapeutics, alleging that the company colluded with fellow pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) Express Scripts to fix prices and engage in anti-competitive behavior. The suit alleges Prime accessed Express Scripts’ network to slash prices. Additional article:https://www.modernhealthcare.com/insurance/mh-prime-therapeutics-lawsuit-express-scripts-pbm/ (Some articles may require a subscription.) #pbms #drugpricing #antitrust #pharmacies https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/independent-pharmacies-hit-prime-therapeutics-antitrust-suit-over-alleged-price-fixing Private Equity Deep In Hospitals Private equity firms are expanding their healthcare reach through joint ventures with nonprofit health systems. A new report finds that more than 500 healthcare facilities operated through these nonprofit joint ventures. #privateequity #hospitals https://www.medpagetoday.com/hospitalbasedmedicine/generalhospitalpractice/122077 Tampa General Sues Eli Lilly On 340B Tampa General Hospital is suing Eli Lilly over its cut off of 340B discounts, saying that violates Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The hospital alleges the discount change forced the price of Mounjaro from $750.52 per unit to $1,019.74 at wholesale acquisition

ACA Exchange Risk Adjustment Settlements Total $11.7 Billion Health insurers will shuttle $11.17 billion between them due to the 2025 ACA Exchange risk-adjustment settlements. The settlements recognize differences in risk in the program in a given year. UnitedHealthcare will pay $335 million while Centene will receive $751 million, Elevance Health $312 million, Aetna $216 million, and Oscar Health $189 million. (Article may require a subscription.) #exchanges #riskadjustment https://www.modernhealthcare.com/insurance/mh-aca-exchange-risk-adjustment-payments-2025/ Exchange Rolls Saw Drops As Long As A Year Ago According to new data that was quietly published by the federal government, states began seeing steep drops in Exchange enrollment over the past year. Ohio and Oklahoma lost nearly one-third of enrollees. Florida has the most enrollees at nearly 4 million but lost the most at around 443,000. Around 2.6 million fewer Americans had Exchange plans in February compared with the same time last year. #exchanges #coverage #enrollment https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/122067 Dem Bill Targets

Paragon Proposes Reforms The influential Paragon Health Institute released a new report calling for federal funding cuts or tax reforms impacting all health plan lines of business and coverage areas. People pay attention to what Paragon says given its influence and impact on government regulations since 2025 as well as in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). In summary, Paragon wants to see the following changes: #medicare #medicaid #exchanges #employercoverage #healthcarereform #healthcare #coverage https://paragoninstitute.org/medicare/restoring-fiscal-sustainability-to-federal-health-programs-reforming-the-incentives-that-drive-health-care-spending/ Balkanization of Star Ratings We are quickly seeing the balkanization of Star calculations for SY 2026. Elevance Health filed a suit against CMS today arguing that it should have used the Clover’s judge’s measures for recalculation rather than one created by the agency. Elevance says it lost out on $115 million in bonus payments as a result. Elevance has a point. How can one contract get the judge’s ruling while others receive the “better of”

MA Star Bonus To Exceed $13B Healthcare policy group KFF reports that federal spending on Medicare Advantage (MA) quality bonuses will reach at least $13.4 billion in 2026, compared with $12.7 billion in 2025. This is more than four times higher than in 2015. More than two-thirds of Medicare Advantage enrollees (68%) are in plans that qualify for the quality bonus in 2026, down from 75% in 2025. This is the lowest since 2018. The increase ties to more enrollment not better ratings. In another briefer, KFF updates on MA coding intensity. Additional article: https://www.kff.org/medicare/decoding-medicare-advantage-coding-intensity/ #medicareadvantage #radv #riskadjustment #stars #quality #cms https://www.kff.org/medicare/medicare-will-spend-more-than-13-billion-on-the-medicare-advantage-quality-bonus-program-in-2026/ Home Health Hike For 2027 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that would increase Medicare payments to home health providers by 2.4% in 2027. In addition, the rule would make it easier to bar providers and suppliers from Medicare over fraud. In

House Wants To Rein In Private Equity A bipartisan House bill would require extensive reporting on private equity firms’ healthcare holdings and ownership structures. The reporting is aimed at identifying financial arrangements that may impact the financial health of the healthcare entity as well as impacts on healthcare delivery. The bill is similar to state laws on transparency in private equity. Other states have gone deeper and ruled out certain financial arrangements by private equity for acquired healthcare entities. (Article may require a subscription.) #healthcare #congress #privateequity https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-regulation/mh-private-equity-healthcare-congress-transparency Providers Direct Contract With Employers There is a growing trend in providers direct contracting with employers. Local networks are leveraged and providers avoid prior authorization and other administrative burdens. Both employers and providers are cutting out the insurance middleman. (Article may require a subscription.) #healthplans #employercoverage #providers https://www.modernhealthcare.com/providers/mh-northwell-commonspirit-direct-contracting-employers Providers May Get Changes For Quality Reporting A new bipartisan House bill would allow

States Sue on Work Requirements Democratic governors and attorneys general from 25 states and Washington, D.C. are suing the Trump administration over the proposed Medicaid work requirements regulation. States argue the rule narrows exemptions for medically frail Medicaid beneficiaries and creates administrative barriers that could cause eligible people to lose coverage. The plaintiffs say the rule goes well beyond the statute by requiring people with serious health conditions to prove their condition significantly impairs their ability to meet work requirements. Additional: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/25-states-sue-trump-admin-over-medicaid-work-requirements-7-things-to-know/ and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-regulation/mh-medicaid-work-requirement-lawsuit-democrats-bonta/ (Some articles may require a subscription.) #medicaid #workrequirements #states https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5946392-lawsuit-trump-medicaid-exemptions/ GLP-1 Bridge Population Healthcare policy group KFF finds that 3.8 million Medicare beneficiaries meet the criteria to be eligible for the new Medicare GLP-1 Bridge. The group looked at claims data from 2023. The proposed BALANCE program failed to attract enough plan participation. Instead, the Trump administration will run Bridge from July 2026 to Dec 2027.

Exchange Enrollment Falls Dramatically A number of analyses have predicted that Exchange enrollment nationally will fall in 2026 after dropping from 24.3M in 2025 to 23.1 in January 2026. The analyses said that enrollment would drop to as low as 17.5M as people would not be able to afford their premiums throughout the year. Sure enough, the predictions seem to have come true, and the news may be being buried. Today, a Health and Human Services (HHS) website posted an analysis on fraudulent and phantom enrollments and deep in the release were latest enrollment figures. HHS says around 19.2 million people are enrolled in the Exchanges as of now, a drop of about 4M since January. HHS says millions are inappropriately receiving subsidies, including individuals misstating their income to gain access to free plans and phantom enrollees (those who are unknowingly enrolled in free plans by unscrupulous brokers or are

Cassidy Wants 340B Reform Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, unveiled a draft for 340B reform today and challenged the public to offer comments for the possible passage of legislation later in the year. This would be the first time any statutory changes to 340B would be made in 15 years. There are numerous reforms aimed at controlling costs, reining in inappropriate use of the program, reducing duplicative discounts, and ensuring savings are actually passed through to needy consumers. The hospital lobby and others oppose any changes. Numerous studies show that 340B hospitals tend to have higher prices than non-340B ones. Changes would include the ability of drug makers to offer upfront discounts or retrospective rebates, claims submission, and mandatory pass-through of the rebates. There would also be a set number of contract pharmacies within each geographic region that a qualifying provider could have. Additional article: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/cassidys-new-plan-reform-340b-rebates-contract-pharmacy-limits-and-more (Some articles may require a

CMS Actuary: $9T Healthcare In Our Future The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Actuary released annual outyear growth projections for healthcare. The actuary says U.S. healthcare spending will hit just short of $9 trillion by 2034. That will be 20.6% of gross domestic product (GDP). While final numbers for 2025 will be tallied by December, the actuary also said healthcare spending was about $5.7 trillion in 2025, up 7.3% from about $5.3 trillion in 2024. That was about 18% of GDP. This is the third straight year of over 7% growth. The average growth over the decade will be about 5.4%, which is lower than previous projections. But healthcare spending will continue to grow faster than the rest of the economy during the decade period projected. Utilization increases have been one of the major culprits for aggressive trends the past few years. This will continue in 2026 and