Friday Five: Top 5 healthcare business news items from the MCOL Weekend edition

Every business day, MCOL posts feature stories making news on the business of health care. Here are five we think are particularly important for this week: Trump to Issue Stop-Payment Order on Health Care Subsidies In a brash move likely to roil insurance markets, President Donald Trump will "immediately" halt payments to insurers under the Obama-era health care law he has been trying to unravel for months. The Associated Press Friday, October 13, 2017 Trump’s Order Advances GOP Go-To Ideas To Broaden Insurance Choices, Curb Costs The Trump administration Thursday advanced a wide-ranging executive order aimed at expanding lower-cost insurance options, allowing employers to give workers money to buy their own coverage and slowing consolidation in the insurance and hospital industries. Kaiser Health News Thursday, October 12, 2017 House Republicans Ramp Up Scrutiny of Providers in Drug Discount Program House Republicans are intensifying scrutiny of a federal program that gives thousands of safety-net providers hefty discounts on prescription drugs but that they say doesn’t have effective tools to track where the savings are going. Morning Consult Wednesday, October 11, 2017 Long-Term Disability Insurance Gets Little Attention But Can Pay Off Big Time “It won’t happen to me.” Maybe that sentiment explains consumers’ attitude toward long-term disability insurance, which pays a portion of your income if you are unable to work. Sixty-five percent of respondents surveyed this year by LIMRA, an association of financial services and insurance companies, said that most people need disability insurance. Kaiser Health News Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Overlooked By ACA: Many People Paying Full Price For Insurance ‘Getting Slammed’ Paul Melquist of St. Paul, Minn., has a message for the people who wrote the Affordable Care Act: “Quit wrecking my health care.” Teri Goodrich, of Raleigh, N.C., has the same complaint. “We’re getting slammed. We didn’t budget for this,” she said. Kaiser Health News Monday, October 9, 2017 These and more weekly news items on the business of healthcare are featured in the MCOL Weekend edition, along with the MCOL Tidbits, and more, for MCOL Premium level members.