Compounding healthcare costs may force some employers to take a hard look at the benefits they're offering to employees, according to a new survey. The Business Group on Health released its annual deep dive into employers' healthcare strategies Tuesday and found that these firms are bracing for median cost increase of 9% in 2026, following two years of increases that outpaced their forecasts.
Last month, Healthcare Innovation reported on the WISeR (Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction) model, a new model being tested by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center that applies prior authorization processes to Traditional Medicare. The model will use artificial intelligence (AI) to review items and services that CMS deems vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse.
Medicare could see deep cuts through 2034 under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed on July 4, according to an Aug. 15 Congressional Budget Office letter. The S-PAYGO Act, enacted under former President Barack Obama, requires Congress to ensure new legislation is budget neutral. Should lawmakers pass legislation that increases the deficit, the law enforces the threat of sequestration — or spending cuts — to counterbalance excess costs.
Every one of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) medical facilities reported “severe occupational staffing shortages” to a government watchdog, which found a 50% increase in total shortages from fiscal year 2024 to 2025, according to a Tuesday report. The review from the VA’s Office of Inspector General (VA OIG) identified 4,434 total severe occupational staffing shortages among Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities as of April.
While the recently passed H.R. 1 law includes an estimated $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, it also features a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) designed to ease the impact of the cuts on rural providers. But some stakeholders are raising questions about the two-tiered funding model and how quickly states are being asked to submit transformation plans.
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