News

2019

February

04

• How your health information is sold, turned into ‘risk scores’. Companies are starting to sell “risk scores” to doctors, insurers and hospitals to identify patients at risk of opioid addiction or overdose, without patient consent and with little regulation of the kinds of

• The pros and cons of reducing homeowners insurance coverage. It's important to shop around for homeowners insurance coverage every year or every other year to make sure that the insurance premiums are in line with the market. But should you reduce your

01

• If you do medicare sign-up wrong, it will cost you. Medicare requires enrollees to sign up during a limited window before and after their 65th birthday. Failing to do so leads to stiff late-enrollment penalties that continue for life, and potentially expensive, long waits for

• HHS takes on middlemen that inflate drug prices. The Trump administration is declaring its boldest move yet in its battle to lower the high cost of prescription drugs, proposing to outlaw the secretive rebates that many blame ballooning drug prices in the

January

31

• La mitad de la gente en EEUU tiene enfermedad cardiovascular. Un nuevo estudio calcula que casi la mitad de los adultos estadounidenses tienen algún tipo de enfermedad cardiovascular, un hito médico que en gran parte se debe a los cambios recientes

30

• Wild fire insurance claim value was $11.4B in 2018 (Chinese). (本報訊)州府官員表示，去年11月發生的多場山火所造成的保險索償金額高達114億元，創下加州史上代價最高的山火之一。

29

• PG&E se declara en bancarrota ante demandas por incendios. La mayor empresa de servicios de Estados Unidos, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. (PG&E), se declaró en quiebra el martes mientras enfrenta posibles pagos millonarios por los daños causados por

28

• Federal contractors who lost health insurance remain in limbo. Unlike the 800,000 career federal employees who have been promised full back pay in coming days, government contractors—who are thought to number in the millions—have no legal claim to the five weeks

24

• Switching to digital billing statements?. It seems like everything is going digital, so it’s no surprise that businesses of all sizes (and even some government agencies) are pushing us to choose “environmentally friendly” paperless billing. 

23

• When a health insurer also wants to be a hospice company. Humana is teaming up with two investment firms to become the nation’s largest provider of hospice care, dominating a rapidly growing—and controversial—business.

16

• The strange marketplace for diabetes test strips. It is legal to resell unused test strips for blood glucose, and many patients do, driving an unusual trade online and on the streets.

• Walmart drops CVS pharmacy coverage. Walmart said Tuesday that it would no longer honor prescription drug coverage from CVS Health, leaving large numbers of Walmart customers searching for a new pharmacist and amplifying concerns about the growing market power of

15

• Consumers prefer a paper trail (Survey says consumers choose paper statements over electronic notices). The message is clear: Consumers overwhelmingly prefer to receive bills and statements on paper rather than electronically, according to a new survey of more than 2,600 people by the non-profit Consumer Action. Up to three-quarters of

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.

• Paper or digital? (Winter 2018-2019). Paper or digital, that is the question—and the focus of the Winter 2018-2019 issue of Consumer Action News. Companies and government agencies are (in some cases aggressively) switching consumers from paper to electronic communications, but is that what consumers want or need? Read the newsletter to learn about consumers’ rights regarding paper statements, what a Consumer Action survey on the topic revealed, and how groups are pushing back on paperless in support of consumer choice.