News
Beyond Policy Placement: The Evolution of the Modern Insurance Broker
6+ day, 17+ hour ago (1592+ words) As organizations face increasingly interconnected risks, brokers are being called upon to serve as strategic advisors, helping clients identify vulnerabilities, improve resilience and manage their total cost of risk. The evolution has transformed the broker-client relationship from a transactional arrangement…...
Cell and Gene Therapy Costs Remain Rare for Employers, but Utilization Shifts Are Coming
22+ hour, 35+ min ago (981+ words) Cell and gene therapies carry price tags that can exceed $2 million to $4 million per treatment, yet the actual cost burden on employer health plans has remained narrow, according to analysis from Lockton. Data from the brokerage firm’s SAGE Intelligence Platform…...
Cancer, Preterm Births, and Specialty Drugs Drive Record Severity in Self-Funded Health Plans
1+ week, 6+ day ago (1421+ words) Claims exceeding $1 million have become dramatically more common in employer-sponsored health plans, with frequency nearly tripling over the past five years and average severity in 2025 running 10% above the average of prior years, according to QBE North America’s 2026 Accident & Health Market…...
The Unintentional Impact of PBM Legislation on Workers’ Compensation
2+ week, 3+ day ago (978+ words) In this article, Adam Fowler, MyMatrixx by Evernorth Director of Regulatory Affairs, explains why workers’ compensation is fundamentally different from group health insurance and how applying commercial pharmacy benefit concepts to workers’ compensation can conflict with existing statutes and disrupt…...
Brett Feldman Joins Crum & Forster's Accident & Health Division as Vice President of Stop Loss Underwriting
2+ week, 3+ day ago (1054+ words) Brett Feldman joined Crum & Forster’s Accident & Health Division as vice president of C&F Stop Loss Underwriting within the Medical Business Unit. “Brett brings a rare blend of underwriting discipline, strategic thinking, and team leadership to Crum & Forster,” said David…...
Affordability, AI, and PBM Reform Set to Reshape Employer Benefits
1+ mon, 5+ day ago (1176+ words) Employer-sponsored benefits are approaching a breaking point on cost, and brokers see little stability ahead. Pharmacy cost management point solutions — including discount card programs and price transparency tools — topped the list of most commonly used point solutions at 63%, followed by…...
Workers' Comp Medical Prices Vary Dramatically by State, With Fee Schedules Proving Key to Cost Control
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (1348+ words) The gap between the lowest- and highest-price states for workers’ compensation medical professional services is stark: prices in Wisconsin were nearly four times those in Massachusetts in 2025, according to Workers Compensation Research Institute’s 2026 Medical Price Index. The annual study tracks…...
Promoted from Within: Vermont’s New Captive Insurance Leader Continues a Legacy of Excellence
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (1679+ words) “When you get promoted to a new role, particularly in Vermont where we’re fortunate to be recognized as the leader, there’s definitely a sense of responsibility to make sure we’re making thoughtful decisions and heading in the right direction” Brown…...
Managing Facility Costs in Workers’ Compensation
2+ mon, 2+ day ago (614+ words) N.J. high court affirms rebuttable presumption that educators who contracted coronavirus during pandemic did so at work, shifting burden of proof to employers and insurers. As artificial intelligence reshapes business risk, insurers are scrambling to define, underwrite and price exposures that…...
Workers' Comp Drug Costs Reverse Course, Rising Sharply Across Most States
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (873+ words) Dermatological agents — primarily topical analgesics applied directly to the skin — remained the single largest drug cost category, accounting for 23% of prescription payments in the median state as of the first quarter of 2025. In 12 of the 31 states studied, that share exceeded…...