Midweek update

CNBC reports that the House of Representatives voted by a wide majority of 397-31 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act's self-defeating high cost plan tax (H.R. 748).  If the Senate does not quickly approve this clean bill and send it to the President for his signature, the FEHBlog will eat his hat.

The House giveth; the House taketh away. Healthcare Dive informs us that the House Energy and Commerce Committee today cleared for full House consideration an amended version of its no surprise billing act (H.R. 3630) --

The change comes from Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., and will let either providers or payers appeal to an independent arbiter in cases where the median in-network rate exceeds $1,250. Previously, the bill proposed establishing a benchmark payment rate to resolve any disputes.

This bone thrown to out of network providers destroys the bill's opportunity for lowering health care costs. The Senate bill (S. 1895) does not include this time bomb.

Today, the Internal Revenue Service took a step to implement the President's recent executive order on health care pricing and quality transparency by issuing IRS Notice No. 2019-45.  This notice, which took effect immediately, permits certain chronic disease related services to be covered under high deductible health plans before the deductible. This favorable change should make these sensible policies which can be coupled with health savings accounts more appealing to consumers. Time will tell.

The Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar issued a statement today on the encouraging news that "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics released provisional counts of overdose deaths in the United States showed a decline of 5.1 percent between 2017 and 2018." Still way to high, but moving down.

Check out this Employee Benefit News article based on an interesting study conducted by Optum and the National Business Group on Heath

For decades, employers and benefit managers have thought of well-being programs as one-dimensional with the focus on physical health, only offering benefits like on-site fitness centers, gym discounts or a health program that encourages more movement.

But now, in a highly competitive marketplace where employers are looking to attract and retain motivated and productive employees, the idea of well-being programs is expanding and evolving. Just focusing on physical health won’t cut it anymore. Rather, employers are now seeking out innovative workplace well-being programs that encompass five aspects of health: physical, mental, financial, social and community.

Overall employee well-being matters. Newly released data shows that employees who are offered programs that address most or all of the five aspects of well-being are significantly more likely to say their job performance is excellent, they have a positive impression of their employer and would recommend their company as a place to work.