Health Plan Weekly

Some insurers and retailers are backing away from their investments in provider verticals, especially retail health brands. Cigna's stake in VillageMD, a joint venture with Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., has lost money, and VillageMD will soon close many locations instead of pursuing aggressive growth. Walmart Inc. also said it will close its health care venture. 

In recent years, diversified insurers have seen clinics in which they own a stake as a place where they can control cost of care and, ideally, improve member satisfaction by reducing the friction required to access basic care services — in addition to growing revenue in a segment that isn’t capped by medical loss ratio (MLR) rules. But that premise hasn’t always amounted to much more than a compelling story in practice. 

Although telehealth policies that were put in place in March 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire at the end of the year, congressional leaders are taking steps to extend the policies for an additional two years. Even if the legislation passes, more research needs to be done to assess the benefits and downsides of treating people virtually from a payer, provider and patient perspective, according to speakers at a May 1 panel organized by the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation. 

The House Ways and Means Committee on May 8 unanimously advanced legislation that would preserve Medicare beneficiaries’ access to telehealth through 2026. Reps. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) are sponsors of bill H.R. 8261, which is known as the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act.  

People with health savings account-eligible high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) use less outpatient services and fill fewer prescription medications than people with PPOs, but HSA plan enrollment appears to have no impact on total health care spending, according to a recent study published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

As of 2022, 57.9% of employees were enrolled in an HSA-eligible health plan, while 32.3% of them were in an HDHP that was not associated with an HSA.