The Trump administration expressed support on Tuesday for sending direct cash payments to Americans in the next two weeks as part of a massive economic stimulus package that is taking shape in Washington, something the White House hopes could stanch the economic free fall caused by the coronavirus.
Highmark Health, parent company of Highmark Inc. insurance plans and the Allegheny Health Network, finished 2019 with an operating profit of $241 million on $18 billion in total revenue including investments, officials reported Monday, adding an 11th consecutive quarter of positive earnings to the books.
U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) recently led his home-state colleagues in denouncing a proposed rule to revamp aspects of Medicaid financing that they said could negatively impact beneficiaries in Texas and other states. In a March 10 letter sent to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, Rep. Burgess and the Texas House delegation expressed concerns about the proposed 2019 Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation to change the supplemental payment financing mechanisms.
The federal government must pay health insurers the full amount of Obamacare cost-sharing payments they would have received had the government not unlawfully refused to make them, insurers trying to recoup billions in lost payments told a federal appeals court.
U.S. stocks dropped sharply Monday even after the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero, reflecting investors’ concerns that the emergency measures may not be enough to ward off a coronavirus-induced recession.
House Democrats and the White House are patting themselves on the back for passing a coronavirus relief bill late Friday that most Members didn’t even have time to read before voting 363-30 in favor. Let’s hope that, in the name of helping workers, the bill doesn’t create permanent new burdens on the businesses that employ them.