January 4, 2016 by John Schultz and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, H-E-B, health insurance, HealthCare.gov, HHS, Sylvia Burwell, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2016, Issue 01-04-2016, Issues, News
SAN ANTONIO — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell stopped at an H-E-B grocery store here, where she drew attention to the December 15 enrollment deadline for consumers who wanted their health insurance plans to become active on January 1. Although open enrollment for 2016 health insurance plans continued through
January 4, 2016 by Jeffrey Woldt and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, chain drug store business, community pharmacy, CVS Health, Jeffrey Woldt, Omnicare, Rite Aid, Target Corp., Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Walgreens Boots Alliance
2016, Issue 01-04-2016, Issues, Opinion
In many significant ways, the chain drug store business looks very different at the start of 2016 than it did a year ago. Walgreens Boots Alliance, which emerged from a two-step merger process at the close of 2014, spent the past 12 months rationalizing operations in the United States and developing synergies with its retail
December 7, 2015 by Geoff Walden and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, health insurance exchanges, Health Insurance Marketplace, HealthCare.gov, UnitedHealth Group
2015, Issue 12-07-2015, Issues, Leading Headlines, News, Pharmacy, Retail News
NEW YORK — UnitedHealth Group Inc. may pull out of Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges in 2017 after losing what it said were hundreds of millions of dollars on policies sold under the law. The company, the nation’s largest health insurer, significantly cut its 2015 profit estimates based on losses on individual policies sold
December 7, 2015 by John Schultz and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, Andrew Slavitt, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, health care spending, health insurance coverage, Medicaid, spending on prescription drugs
2015, Business, Issue 12-07-2015, Issues, Leading Headlines, Pharmacy, Retail News
WASHINGTON — Health care spending in the United States last year exceeded $3 trillion as five years of slow growth was replaced by the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid and private health insurance coverage. Prescription drug prices accelerated as well. Health care spending grew faster than the economy in 2014, and the federal share
November 23, 2015 by Jeffrey Woldt and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, Bernie Sanders, ColoradoCare, Health and Human Services, IMS Health, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, single-payer health care system, Sylvia Burwell, U.S. health care system, Walgreens Health Services
2015, Issue 11-23-2015, Issues, Opinion
More than five years after enactment of the Affordable Care Act, a measure designed to extend coverage to the uninsured and control expenditures, the turmoil in the U.S. health care system shows no signs of abating. Millions of Americans are still without health coverage, and health care costs continue to increase faster than the overall
October 26, 2015 by Geoff Walden and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, health insurance, health insurance exchanges, Medicaid, open enrollment, Sylvia Burwell
2015, Issue 10-26-2015, Issues, News, Pharmacy
WASHINGTON — Slow growth is foreseen for health insurance enrollment through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the Obama administration said this month. Coverage by the end of 2016 will barely exceed current levels, the administration said. Sign-ups during the ACA’s upcoming open enrollment season will bring the number of covered individuals to 10 million, up
October 26, 2015 by Jeffrey Woldt and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, CVS Health, Jeffrey Woldt, medication adherence, MinuteClinic, Pharmacy Advisor, Predictive Adherence Index, retail pharmacy, ScriptSync, Vulnerable Patient Index, William Shrank
2015, Issue 10-26-2015, Issues, Leading Headlines, Opinion
The move toward closer cooperation among providers is one of the more intriguing developments in health care, one that promises to improve patient outcomes and limit expenditures in a sector that accounts for almost 20% of the nation’s gross domestic product. The rationale behind the partnerships, and the role of community pharmacies within them, is
October 12, 2015 by John Schultz and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, Department of Health and Human Services, health insurance, health insurance exchanges, open enrollment, Sylvia Burwell
2015, Issue 10-12-2015, Issues, News, Retail News
WASHINGTON — The government vows to conduct an extensive outreach initiative during the Affordable Care Act’s upcoming open enrollment period in an attempt to enroll millions of eligible but difficult-to-reach Americans who have yet to sign up for health insurance. “Those who are still uninsured are going to be a bigger challenge,” Department of Health
October 12, 2015 by Jeffrey Woldt and Chain Drug Review
2016 presidential race, Affordable Care Act, Bernie Sanders, cost of prescription drugs, Daraprim, Harvoni, Hillary Clinton, Jeffrey Woldt, pharmaceutical prices, Sovaldi, Viekira Pak
2015, Issue 10-12-2015, Issues, Opinion
The 2016 presidential race is already well under way. Despite thousands of speeches, interviews and, on the Republican side, two debates, there is a lot about the candidates’ thinking that needs to be clarified. One thing, however, is certain — health care will be a prominent issue as the process of choosing Barack Obama’s successor
September 28, 2015 by Mark Baumgartner and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, American Community Survey, Census Bureau, health insurance coverage, Medicaid
2015, Issue 09-28-2015, Issues, News
WASHINGTON — Supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) hailed a recent Census Bureau report that the percentage of people without health insurance coverage declined by 2.9 percentage points last year, from 13.3% to 10.4%. That’s a reduction of 8.8 million people, the biggest one-year decline ever, and part of the reason
September 28, 2015 by Jeffrey Woldt and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, health care costs, health care reform, health care spending, J. Samantha Dougherty, Jeffrey Woldt, Laura Miller, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, retail pharmacies
2015, Issue 09-28-2015, Issues, Opinion
The major provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have been in effect for almost two years now, enough time to undertake an interim analysis of the controversial law’s impact on the health care system. President Obama and other advocates of the ACA, which since its enactment in March 2010 has withstood two
September 14, 2015 by Brian Bossetta and Chain Drug Review
2015 NACDS Total Store Expo, 21st Century Cures, Affordable Care Act, NACDS, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, pharmacy reimbursement, Randy Edeker, specialty pharmacy, Steve Anderson
2015, Issue 09-14-2015, Issues, News
DENVER — The health and wellness landscape is changing, and retailers able to navigate it will be better positioned for success. That ability and the capacity to build networks were key points made at the 2015 NACDS Total Store Expo in Denver by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ top two leaders. “You think
September 4, 2015 by Geoff Walden and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, Fred's, Greg Foran, headwinds in the pharmacy industry, Jerry Shore, pharmacy margins, prescription drug business, reimbursement rates, Walmart
Business, Leading Headlines, Retail News
NEW YORK — The world’s biggest retailer and a regional discount chain have attributed pressure on profits to trends in the prescription drug business. Walmart and Memphis, Tenn.-based Fred’s Inc. said lower pharmacy margins had eaten into second quarter earnings and pointed to lower reimbursements and a drop in cash customers as a result of
August 22, 2015 by Geoff Walden and Chain Drug Review
Affordable Care Act, Americans without health insurance, Gallup, health insurance, National Center for Health Statistics
2015, Issue 08-24-2015, Issues, Leading Headlines, News
WASHINGTON — The Affordable Care Act has reduced the number of Americans without health insurance by 15.8 million, or one-third, since 2013, new government data shows. In the first quarter of this year there were 29 million uninsured people, the National Center for Health Statistics said this month. The share of the population without insurance