Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Providers

The Supreme Court refused to halt a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers in New York that does not offer an exemption for religious reasons. The court acted on emergency appeals filed by doctors, nurses, and other medical workers who say they are being...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Payers

A new study from Gallup and West Health indicates that 30 percent of Americans have skipped medical care for a health problem in the previous three months due to concerns about the cost. The percentage has tripled since March, reaching its highest point during the...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Payers

A new survey from Mercer found that employer health insurance costs spiked in 2021 after a sharp drop in 2020. The average cost for insurance per employee rose by 6.3 percent in 2021 as care use returned to more normal levels. Insurance costs increased by 3.4 percent...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Life Sciences

A two-shot course of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with the omicron variant. According to Discovery Ltd., South Africa’s largest medical-insurance provider, the protection is maintained across age...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Life Sciences

Pfizer released new data confirming its oral antiviral pill for COVID-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent in high-risk adults. The company said there is an ongoing interim analysis of a second study of the pill, called Paxlovid, which has so...