The cost of prescription medicines used by millions of people every day is about to plummet.  The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the world's 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two:  cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.  Top drugs getting generic competition by September 2012 are taken by millions every day:  Lipitor alone is taken by about 4.3 million Americans and Plavix by 1.4 million.  Generic versions of big-selling drugs for blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, depression, high triglycerides, HIV and bi-polar disorder also are coming by then. "My estimation is at least 15 percent of the population is currently using one of the drugs whose patents will expire in 2011 or 2012," said Joel Owerbach, chief pharmacy officer for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, which serves most of upstate New York.  Those patients, along with businesses and taxpayers who help pay for prescription drugs through corporate and government prescription plans, collectively will save a...

Some big health insurance rate hikes will now receive an extra layer of scrutiny.  A new review process has begun as part of the health care overhaul. Whenever an insurer seeks a rate hike of 10 percent or more for individual and small-employer group coverage, it now must submit the plan for either a state or federal review of whether it's reasonable. Government officials will not have the authority to reject rate increases, but any increases will be posted along with an explanation for them on the website, www.healthcare.gov. Health insurers have pointed to rising prices for medical care as the root cause behind their premium increases, and they have said this factor is being ignored while public policy discussions focus on premiums. Steep rate hikes in recent years - some stretching well beyond 10 percent - have strained small businesses and forced some people who buy individual insurance to drop or scale back their coverage.  Health and Human Services Secretary...

Preliminary results have been released by United Benefit Advisors (UBA) from its 2011 UBA Health Plan Survey, the nation's largest health plan benchmarking survey.  Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHPs) in the U.S. experienced continued growth this year - albeit a slower rate than in 2009 and 2010. CDHPs account for 22.9% of plans offered and cover more employees (17.3%) than Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans (11.9%), according to Bill Stafford, UBA Vice President, Member Services. Employers continue to offset the higher out-of-pocket costs of CDHPs by offering employees a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) or a health savings account (HSA) and contributing funds.  The 2011 UBA Health Plan Survey found the average employer contribution to an HRA was $1,656 (up from $1,481 in 2010) for a single employee and $3,198 for a family (up from $2,857 in 2010). Other key statistics from this year's Survey results:

The average renewal increase for all plan types was 8.2% PPO plans have nearly two-thirds of all enrolled employees (64.4%)...

2012 Health Benefit Cost Growth Likely to be the Lowest in 15 Years Amidst all the talk of health benefit costs skyrocketing, there may be good news -on the horizon.  Early responses to a Mercer survey still in the field suggest that the average growth in health benefit costs will slow to 5.4% in 2012, the smallest increase since 1997.  Still, cost growth remains well above both general inflation and growth in workers' earnings. While this increase reflects cost-cutting changes employers will make to their current health benefit programs, such as raising deductibles or moving employees into lower-cost health plans, the preliminary survey findings released yesterday suggest that the underlying trend has slowed as well.  Asked how much costs would rise if they made no changes to their current plans, employers reported an average increase of 7.1%.  Over the past five years, this underlying health benefit cost trend has been running at about 9%. The slower trend is good news for workers because an employer's...

The Obama administration proposed new rules recently that would require health insurance companies and employers to provide information to policyholders and employees describing health benefits, coverage and costs in plain English. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the new "summary of benefits and coverage" would make it easier for consumers to shop for insurance and compare plans.  The new forms, scheduled to be available next year, set disclosure standards for private health plans covering 180 million people.  The White House compared the new information to the "nutrition facts" labels found on many packaged foods. As part of the new form, insurers and employers would have to itemize the costs that would be incurred by consumers needing certain services.  These "coverage examples" would show how insurers cover the cost of having a baby, treating breast cancer and managing diabetes. In the summary of benefits coverage, insurers must answer questions like these:  "What...

A popular government program that subsidized COBRA health insurance premiums for millions of laid-off employees will end this month.  Under the COBRA premium subsidy program, which was included as part of a huge economic stimulus bill Congress passed in February 2009 during the peak of the recession, the federal government pays 65% of COBRA premiums for involuntarily terminated employees. Since then, Congress several times extended the program in which premium subsidies are provided to laid-off employees for up to 15 months.  The last extension in April 2010 extended the subsidy to those let go through May 31, 2010.  For employees who were laid off in May 2010 and have been unemployed since, their 15 months of COBRA premium subsidies will expire at the end of August.  The exact number of individuals who took the subsidy isn't known.  At the time the original subsidy legislation was passed, congressional analysts estimated that the subsidy would aid more than 7 million laid-off employees and their families...

"If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." --Mickey Mantle According to a recent survey by Men's Health Magazine and CNN, one-third of American men have not had a checkup in the past year.  Nine million men haven't seen a doctor in the last five years. The consequences of not seeing a doctor can be serious.  Before age 65, men suffer 2.5 times more heart attacks than women.  By age 65, one in three men suffers from high blood pressure, a primary risk for heart attacks.  Yet men are less likely than women to have their blood pressure checked.  Below are some more facts:

Each year, men make 150 million fewer trips to doctors than women. One in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, yet few will have the easy and painless tests to detect it. Men are at greater risk of stress-related illnesses than women, yet only 20% of the people in a typical stress-management program are men. Men are 30% more likely than women to have a stroke. ...

The cost of prescription medicines used by millions of people every day is about to plummet.  The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the world's 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two:  cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.  Top drugs getting generic competition by September 2012 are taken by millions every day:  Lipitor alone is taken by about 4.3 million Americans and Plavix by 1.4 million.  Generic versions of big-selling drugs for blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, depression, high triglycerides, HIV and bi-polar disorder also are coming by then. "My estimation is at least 15 percent of the population is currently using one of the drugs whose patents will expire in 2011 or 2012," said Joel Owerbach, chief pharmacy officer for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, which serves most of upstate New York.  Those patients, along with businesses and taxpayers who help pay for prescription drugs through corporate and government prescription plans, collectively will save a...

A new bill introduced in the Senate last week could help consumers keep their employer-sponsored flexible spending account funds at the end of the year.  Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) introduced the Medical Flexible Spending Account Improvement Act, S. 1404, that would allow consumers to pay taxes on and withdraw their remaining funds from their FSAs. During his introduction of the bill, Sen. Cardin said, "It is time to modernize FSAs to eliminate this burdensome 'use it or lose it' rule.  It is both fair and sound health policy to allow FSA participants to cash-out remaining funds at the end of the plan year rather than forfeiting the balance to their employer." "FSAs help millions of Americans manage and reduce their out-of-pocket health care costs," said Joe Jackson, chairman of Save Flexible Spending Plans and CEO of WageWorks, Inc.  "However, the 'use it or lose it' rule creates an unnecessary risk for FSA participants and a deterrent for non-participants.  Changing this rule will ensure that participants don't lose their hard-earned money if their out-of-pocket health care costs don't match their prediction for the year."...

From 1990 to 2009, the number of hospital emergency departments in non-rural areas in the USA declined by 27%, according to a study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. "That's a hefty number, and more than I expected," says study author Renee Hsia, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.  Hsia and her colleagues found that the number of emergency departments dropped from 2,446 to 1,779 - an average of 89 closings per year.  The figure included only non-rural locations since those in rural areas generally receive special funding from federal sources. Hsia says researchers wanted to examine the factors that led to closings. "Certain hospitals are at higher risk for losing their ERs than others," she says. ERs shut down were more likely to: -  Have low profit margins -  Serve patients below the poverty level -  Serve patients with poorer forms of insurance, including Medicaid -  Be in for-profit hospitals -  Be in more competitive markets...