Robert F. Kennedy Jr. worries anti-obesity drugs could ‘double insurance costs for employers’

By Allison Bell - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he believes in careful use of the GLP-1 agonist anti-obesity drugs to help people coping with morbid obesity or diabetes. President Donald Trump has nominated Kennedy to be the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Medicare and Medicaid and helps enforce the Affordable Care Act commercial health insurance rules. Read Full Article… ^{_{(Subscription required)}} 

HVBA Article Summary

1. GLP-1 Drug Costs and Policy Implications: Kennedy highlighted the high costs associated with GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy and Ozempic, warning that widespread use, especially with federal funding, could lead to a trillion-dollar annual expenditure and significantly raise employer insurance costs. He also cautioned against using these drugs as a frontline treatment for young children.

2. Vaccine Safety and Public Health Concerns: Kennedy faced scrutiny from multiple senators regarding his past skepticism of vaccines. Lawmakers, including Sen. Markey and Sen. Murkowski, challenged him on the potential harm caused by his past statements, emphasizing the importance of maintaining strong vaccination programs to prevent outbreaks of diseases like measles and whooping cough.

3. Confirmation Prospects and Senate Dynamics: Kennedy's nomination faces mixed reactions, particularly regarding his past views on vaccines, but no senator appeared firmly opposed to his confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee may vote on his nomination soon, and with a Republican majority and Vice President JD Vance available to break a tie, his confirmation remains likely.

Business group combining hospital, payer price data for employers

By Nona Tepper - A big-business coalition is using hospital, insurer and employer healthcare cost information to help companies negotiate the price of services and coverage for employees. Read Full Article…

HVBA Article Summary

1. Enhancing Transparency and Accountability: The Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) aims to create an unprecedented level of transparency by integrating price data from insurers and providers with claims data from five major employers, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis of healthcare costs and quality across 10 markets.

2. Empowering Employers with Data-Driven Decisions: Self-funded employers can leverage this tool to assess provider networks, insurance contracts, and hospital agreements, helping them fulfill their fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) while navigating rising healthcare costs.

3. Legal and Financial Implications for Employers: With new federal regulations requiring companies to demonstrate prudent management of healthcare expenses, some employers have turned to litigation over access to claims data. The PBGH initiative may help businesses meet compliance obligations and exert greater control over their healthcare spending.

Questions to ask TPA tech platforms to protect your brand

By Brandy Burch - As brokers and consultants, one of the most valuable services we can provide our clients is helping them maintain and protect their brand across all aspects of their business, including employee benefits platforms. Selecting the right third-party administrator (TPA) with a secure, adaptable technology platform can make a significant impact on how a client's brand is perceived by their employees and streamline benefits administration. Read Full Article…  ^{_{(Subscription required)}} 

HVBA Article Summary

1. Brand Consistency and Customization: A TPA platform should align visually and stylistically with the client’s brand by incorporating company-specific colors, logos, and tone across user-facing materials. This ensures employees feel connected to their employer and reinforces brand identity across all interactions.

2. Security, Compliance, and Transparency: Robust security measures, including strong encryption and access controls, protect sensitive client data and maintain brand trust. Compliance with regulations like HIPAA and GDPR is essential for minimizing legal risks, while clear data-sharing policies enhance transparency and accountability.

3. Operational Support and Insights: Reliable customer support, comprehensive reporting tools, and real-time monitoring help clients address branding inconsistencies and security concerns efficiently. These capabilities provide valuable insights into user engagement, enabling continuous improvements to brand alignment and platform effectiveness.

Increase in online searches for obesity drugs correlates with rise in prescriptions

By Michael Monostra - The number of prescriptions for obesity medications rose an average of 5.3% annually from 2017 to 2024 and corresponded with an increase in online searches for obesity drugs, according to data published in JAMA Network Open. Read Full Article…

HVBA Article Summary

1. Rising Obesity Drug Prescriptions: Monthly obesity drug prescriptions increased from 760,000 in July 2017 to 1.51 million in February 2024, with an annual growth rate of 5.3%. Phentermine remained the most prescribed obesity drug, while semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound) saw significant prescription volumes.

2. Influence of Public Awareness on Prescription Trends: Online search interest for obesity drugs, particularly GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy and Ozempic, strongly correlated with prescription rates. This suggests that public awareness and digital health literacy play a role in driving obesity drug usage.

3. Shifting Prescriber Dynamics: The role of advanced practice practitioners in obesity management has grown, with their share of obesity drug prescriptions increasing from 25.3% in 2017 to 40.6% in 2024, while prescriptions by primary care physicians and internists declined.

2025 insurance tech trends: AI, big data and cautious adoption

By Frank Gargano - Artificial intelligence and the promise of innovation that the technology brings with it has many insurance professionals doubling down on investments for 2025, but the risks lurking in the background have left organizations cautious, according to new data from Digital Insurance. Read Full Article…

HVBA Article Summary

1. Increasing Investment in AI and Emerging Technologies: The majority of insurance carriers, agencies, and tech firms plan to boost their technology budgets in 2025, with AI emerging as the top innovation priority (36%), followed by big data and analytics (28%) and cloud infrastructure (26%). However, many organizations remain in the early exploratory stages of generative AI adoption, with only 37% of health insurance experts reporting full production use.

2. Challenges and Risks in AI Implementation: While AI offers significant opportunities for efficiency and predictive insights, improper implementation can lead to complications. A notable example is the lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare for alleged AI-driven wrongful denials of Medicare Advantage claims. Experts caution that AI should be strategically applied in high-volume, low-subjectivity areas to maximize benefits while minimizing risks.

3. AI’s Role in Reshaping Insurance Operations: Experts predict that AI and predictive analytics will revolutionize the insurance industry by enhancing decision-making, automating processes, and improving risk assessment. However, concerns remain about AI-driven pricing, claims handling, and the potential for “nuclear verdicts,” where AI-enabled legal strategies escalate litigation risks. Clear adoption strategies and governance frameworks are essential for insurers to harness AI effectively.

Employees expect flexible benefits that address individual health, research finds

By Alan Goforth - Steadily rising costs and increased demand for personalization mean employers must keep a closer eye on the return on their benefits investments in the coming year. Read Full Article…

HVBA Article Summary

1. Flexibility is Key: Companies are increasingly shifting toward all-inclusive stipends, which now account for 71% of benefit budgets. These flexible benefits allow employees to allocate funds based on their personal needs, spanning health, wellness, family care, and other essentials.

2. Investing in Employee Growth and Well-being: Health and wellness remain a top priority, making up 18% of stipend spending. Additionally, professional development spending has risen from 13.3% to 15%, highlighting the growing emphasis on upskilling, particularly in AI and technology-driven roles.

3. Evolving Financial and Workplace Support: Companies are addressing financial wellness with increased student loan repayment contributions, growing from 6.8% to 12% of non-taxable spending. Meanwhile, shifts in remote work spending reflect stabilization in hybrid work models and the influence of return-to-office policies.

KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: January 2025

By Audrey Kearney, Grace Sparks, Liz Hamel, Julian Montalvo III, Isabelle Valdes, and Ashley Kirzinger - At the start of President Trump’s second presidential term, the public is divided along partisan lines in their trust in key government health agencies. Over the past several months, President Trump and his political allies have publicly challenged these health-related agencies and discussed cutting some of their funding as part of an effort aimed at increasing government efficiency. Read Full Article…

HVBA Article Summary

1. Declining Trust in Government Health Agencies: Public trust in government health agencies, including the CDC, FDA, and state/local public health officials, has continued to decline, with double-digit drops in trust since June 2023. While individual doctors remain the most trusted source of health information, even trust in personal physicians has decreased from 93% to 85% in the past 18 months.

2. Partisan Divides in Trust and Vaccine Attitudes: Trust in government health agencies remains highly partisan, with Democrats significantly more likely than Republicans to trust institutions like the CDC and FDA. At the same time, trust in figures like President Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Mehmet Oz is notably high among Republicans. This divide extends to childhood vaccine attitudes, with a growing number of Republican parents delaying or skipping routine vaccinations.

3. Persistent Vaccine Myths and Public Confusion: Misinformation about vaccines, including the false claim that MMR vaccines cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines have caused more deaths than the virus itself, remains widespread. Many Americans remain uncertain about these myths, contributing to declining vaccination rates and confusion about the federal government’s role in setting school vaccine requirements. Despite this, a strong majority still supports school vaccine mandates.

How Does Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Support Healthcare AI Initiatives?

By Brian Eastwood - Large language models — generative artificial intelligence tools that process and generate text — are proving popular in healthcare. Because LLMs can respond to diverse prompts and process complex concepts, they show promise for augmenting medical research, patient education and clinical documentation. Read Full Article…

HVBA Article Summary

1. Improving Accuracy and Reducing Bias in Healthcare AI: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) enhances LLMs by incorporating up-to-date, domain-specific knowledge, ensuring responses are more precise and less biased, particularly in critical fields like healthcare.

2. Enhancing Search and Decision Support Capabilities: RAG enables healthcare institutions to navigate vast amounts of unstructured data efficiently, improving medical coding automation, clinical summarization, and decision support by leveraging real-time, authoritative sources.

3. Flexible and Scalable AI Deployment: Unlike fine-tuning, which requires extensive retraining, RAG dynamically integrates external knowledge at runtime, offering a cost-effective, adaptable solution that continuously updates without modifying the underlying model.