Weekend update

Today is the the last day of the 2018 federal fiscal year and the federal government will be operating on a regular schedule.  Tomorrow is the first day of the U.S. Supreme Court's October 2019 term. No FEHBA issues currently are pending before that Court.

The House of Representatives completed its pre-midterm election work last week and hit the campaign trail. Specifically, the House joined the Senate in approving the Defense/HHS etc. minibus appropriations bill. That bill which the President signed also provides for continuing appropriations through December 7 for  operations like the FEHBP without enacted FY 2019 appropriations. Here are links to the Federal News Radio bills on the second enacted minibus and the pending final minibus which will address whether federal employees will receive a pay raise next year.

The House also passed by a 393-8 vote the conference report on the opioid crisis response bill (H.R. 6, H. Res. 1099). Here is a link to the American Hospital Association's site on the conference report.

Countable reports that the Senate will be continuing its work this coming week. Of note is the fact that the Senate plans to consider and approve the opioid crisis response bill this week. A favorable Senate vote would send the bill to the President to be signed into law.

In this regard, here's a link to an interesting Opioid Institute article on using blockchain technology to help remedy the opioid crisis. On last Monday's Econtalk podcast, the interviewer Russ Roberts spoke with Rodney Brooks, the Panasonic Professor of Robotics (emeritus) at MIT. Professors Roberts and Brooks discussed among other things Amara's Law:

Roy Amara was a cofounder of the Institute for the Future, in Palo Alto, the intellectual heart of Silicon Valley. He is best known for his adage now referred to as Amara’s Law:

We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

The discussion covered technology examples such as GPS (long run stage) and driverless cars (short run stage). Blockchain probably falls into the short term category too.

On the mergers and acquisition front last week, Cigna announced its combined Cigna / Express Scripts executive team and according to Healthcare Dive, Aetna sold its entire Medicare Part D business to Wellcare.

The deal — meant to grease the wheels for approval of the pending CVS-Aetna deal — does not affect individual or group Medicare Advantage plans or Medicare supplement plans or products Aetna said the purchase price of its Medicare Part D business is not material. Aetna's standalone Medicare Part D members will continue to be covered by Aetna through the rest of the year. The deal is expected to close Dec. 31.

Both deals are expected to close later this year.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced late last week that

On average, Medicare Advantage premiums will decline while plan choices and new benefits increase. In addition, Medicare Advantage enrollment is projected to reach a new all-time high with more than 36 percent of Medicare beneficiaries projected to be enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2019. This news comes as the agency releases the benefit and premium information for Medicare health and drug plans for the 2019 calendar year.  

The Medicare Advantage open enrollment season runs from October 15 through December 7, 2018.