Weekend update

Congress remains in session on Capitol Hill this week. Here's a link to the Week in Congress's report on last week's activities on the Hill.

We are halfway through the month of September.  The Medicare Advantage Open Season starts in about a month. Investment News reports on projections about the 2019 Medicare COLA (2.8%) and 2019 Medicare Part B premiums.

The latest Medicare Trustees' report projects that basic Medicare Part B premiums will increase by about $1.50 a month to $135.50 per month in 2019 [roughly 1.2%}. The official Medicare premiums will be announced in the fall. High-income retirees pay more, in some cases much more, for the same Medicare coverage.

The final Social Security COLA will be announced shortly after October 11. Next year's Medicare Part B premiums are usually announced in November.

If recent history is any guide, OPM will be announcing the 2019 FEHBP government contribution and FEHB plans wills start announcing the 2019 benefit and enrollee contributions during the week beginning September 24.

Fortune informs us that "a new report from Trust for America’s Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation breaks down the most recently available obesity statistics, based on Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data, on a state-wide, and sobering, basis, finding that seven U.S. states have adult obesity rates that exceed 35%."

From the underlying report

• Over the past five years (2012 – 2017), 31 states had statistically significant increases in their obesity rate and no state had a statistically significant decrease in its obesity rate.
• There continue to be striking racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates. In 31 states, the adult obesity rate among Blacks is at or above 35 percent.  Latino adults have obesity at a rate at or above 35 percent in eight states.  White adults have obesity rates at or above 35 percent in one state. Nationally, the adult obesity rates for Latinos, Blacks and Whites are 47.0 percent, 46.8 percent and 37.9 percent respectively.

Health Payer Intelligence tells us that

More comprehensive coverage for mental healthcare could bring a financial return of four dollars for every one dollar spent by employers, says a report from the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (NAHPC).

One in five adults experience mental illness in a given year but only 41 percent of people with a mental illness receive treatment for their condition, said the NAHPC.  Gaps in mental healthcare insurance coverage are partly to blame for low rates of treatment.

Finally, Healthcare Dive discusses the health functions of the newly released Apple Watch. The FEHBlog wonders when you will be able to use your health savings account or flexible benefit plans to purchase one of these wonders.