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“Mental Health” Focus – Trend or Here to Stay?

… asked him how he was doing, he said, “my cats are literally my lifeline.” While his coping mechanism seems to be working for him, an increasing number of people are experiencing difficult times – and they’re not sure where to turn. Now that employers are seeing the impact on productivity, employee satisfaction, and employee health from the anxiety and depression brought on by side effects of COVID (social isolation, fear, lack of exercise, exhaustion) we were curious what steps our clients were taking to address them. Our recent Mental Health and Wellbeing Pulse Survey had some fascinating results. What we …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/mental-health-focus-trend-or-here-to-stay/

Vaccine Costs Aren’t Likely to Break the Banks of Corporate Health Plan Sponsors

The New York Times (NYT) reported that 13 vaccines are currently in the final stages of testing. Phase 1 testing involves a small sample of people to test safety, dosage, and confirm that the immune system is stimulated by the drug. Phase 2 increases the sample to hundreds of people, testing further for safety/efficacy, and segments the test group to see if different populations experience different outcomes. Phase 3 involves thousands of patients, some of whom receive a placebo. Along the path toward approval, testing may be halted in the event adverse or unexpected outcomes are noted. This has …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/vaccine-costs-arent-likely-to-break-the-banks-of-corporate-health-plan-sponsors/

Will Amazon Pharmacy Change Healthcare?

Viewpoints from Craig Hasday The market shuddered at the announcement of Haven Healthcare – the partnership between Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway. This powerful trio combined financial savvy with insurance and distribution expertise. Surely, they would meaningfully move the market. Well, so far – not so much. Healthcare indeed represents almost 20% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but it’s also true that the status quo is a powerful force, especially when combined with significant political lobbying clout adding to federal and state governmental pressure. It’s no wonder change is difficult to enact. When Amazon bought PillPack in June 2018 …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/will-amazon-pharmacy-change-healthcare/

Pharmacy Update Nov 2020

Amazon Announces Two New Entities in the Pharmacy Channel Recently, Amazon announced its launch of two new entities in the pharmacy channel, Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Prime Prescription Savings Benefit. Amazon has been slowly entering into pharmacy over the last couple of years after its acquisition of Pill Pack. Amazon Pharmacy is the company’s newly minted online pharmacy business built on the backbone of PillPack. Amazon is finding ways to work with retail channels via its exclusive relationship with InsideRx powered by Express Scripts. The new entity enables customers to upload their insurance information onto the online platform, have …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/pharmacy-update-nov-2020/

BCBS Antitrust Settlement Could Be a Game Changer – Especially in Smaller Markets

In September, a tentative $2.7 billion settlement was reached with BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) in an antitrust action brought on behalf of over one million individual and corporate policyholders. BCBS plans cover 109 million, or almost one-third of Americans. Under long-standing rules governing BCBS Association members, insurance purchasers could only transact insurance business with the plan located in the state where their headquarters were based – unless the home-state plan granted permission to obtain a proposal from a BCBS plan based in another state. This was true even if the employer had offices or employees in multiple states …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/bcbs-antitrust-settlement-could-be-a-game-changer/

The Hardening Stop Loss Market

While the year 2020 has softened the medical and dental insurance markets, with COVID-19 suppressing claim costs and continuing to place downward pressure on the entire healthcare economy, stop loss has been a very different story. Over the last 12 to 18 months, the reinsurance market continues to harden, and there seems to be a wide variety of reasons, none of which appear to be slowing down. Viewpoints from Adam Okun For those who are unfamiliar, most employer-sponsored healthcare costs in this country are not paid by insurance carriers, but by the employers directly. This arrangement, known as …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/the-hardening-stop-loss-market/

Americans Are Lonely

Viewpoints from Amanda LaPointe Let’s be honest – most of us have experienced the negative emotional consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stress, anxiety, restlessness, the list goes on. But one experience that may not be as serious for some of us is loneliness. If you’re a parent with three kids, sure, your stress level is higher than it’s ever been, but you’re not isolated and alone at home – although you’re probably spending more time with your kids than you would prefer! My point is you have a social connection with your loved ones, and you …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/americans-are-lonely/

It’s 2020 and Nothing About Healthcare Is Settled

So, you thought the presidential election would be over and the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) would settle the Affordable Care Act (ACA) once and for all and you could get on with planning. Guess again. It is 2020 and nothing is predictable. As we await the results of the presidential election to be certified, we are also looking at the Georgia runoff elections to determine control of the U.S. Senate. Without single-party control of both houses and the executive branch, healthcare change is going to be difficult to push through. Last week, SCOTUS indicated, as expected, that ACA would …

https://www.epicbrokers.com/insights/its-2020-and-nothing-about-healthcare-is-settled/