By Ashlea Ebeling; Forbes ~ May 14, 2014

Is the GE pension plan 101% funded or 86% funded? Trick question. Both answers are correct, and both are in the annual funding notice for plan year 2013 recently sent out to its half million participants.

Millions of Americans who are covered by a defined benefit pension plan by a current or former employer get these form letters in early May. It’s typical for the first page to say “no action is required on your part.” Don’t take that as an invitation to put the notice in the junk mail pile.

By Phil Galewitz; Kaiser Health News ~ May 14, 2014

Most seniors face a dizzying array of options each year when it comes time to choose a Medicare health or prescription drug plan. Beneficiaries can select from an average of 18 health plans and 31 prescription drug plans. In South Florida, they have 88 plan choices altogether.

While choice may sound like a good thing, many seniors say they find it difficult to compare plans. As a result, they often stick with the same plan even if it is not best suited to them, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation based on conversations with beneficiaries in Memphis, Tennessee; Tampa, Florida; Baltimore; and Seattle. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

By Reed Abelson; The New York Times ~ May 13, 2014

In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want.

These so-called narrow networks, featuring limited groups of providers, have made a big entrance on the newly created state insurance exchanges, where they are a common feature in many of the plans. While the sizes of the networks vary considerably, many plans now exclude at least some large hospitals or doctors’ groups. Smaller networks are also becoming more common in health care coverage offered by employers and in private Medicare Advantage plans.

By Howard Gleckman; Forbes ~ May 09, 2014

The tax subsidy for employer-sponsored health insurance is huge. Not only are the premiums exempt from income tax, they are also immune from Social Security payroll tax. The two subsidies combined will add more than $1.6 trillion to the deficit over the next five years alone.

But because that income is not included in the Social Security wage base, some workers also lose out on future retirement benefits. So what would happen if Congress repealed the exclusion for employer-sponsored insurance?

By Matthew Heimer; MarketWatch ~ May 09, 2014

Americans withdrew about $57 billion from 401(k)s and IRAs in 2011, paying about $5.7 billion in early-withdrawal penalties to the Internal Revenue Service—an increase of 37% over the previous decade. Those numbers spell out a troubling truth about life after the Great Recession: Families on the economic margins are much less likely to have an emergency fund or home equity to fall back on when they need a cash infusion, so they’re hitting the retirement funds instead.

By John Tozzi; Bloomberg Businessweek ~ May 09, 2014

Medicare’s chief watchdog plans to make it easier for doctors who have lost their licenses and gotten new ones to resume billing the program. Under a proposal published on Friday, authorities would have more latitude to reinstate doctors and other professionals banned from Medicare after they’ve been punished by states for misconduct.

The planned change comes even as new Medicare data shows that the federal health program for older Americans pays millions of dollars to doctors whose licenses were revoked but who managed to keep practicing by getting licenses in other states. One doctor convicted of embezzlement in Ohio and barred permanently from practicing medicine there was granted a license in New Mexico, where he collected $660,000 from Medicare in 2012, according to Bloomberg News. A ProPublica report found that doctors banned from state Medicaid programs collected more than $6 million in 2012.

By Mary Agnes Carey; Kaiser Health News ~ May 08, 2014

Enrollees in some of the health law’s most popular plans will face high cost-sharing requirements that the pharmaceutical industry says could keep patients from getting the drugs they need.

Most silver plans in the online marketplaces, or exchanges, require patients to pay for prescription drugs as part of the plan’s deductible, while nearly all bronze plans do, according to a report from Breakaway Health prepared for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry’s trade group.

By Robert Langreth; Bloomberg Businessweek ~ May 08, 2014

Earl Harford, a retired professor who lives in Tucson, recently bought a month’s worth of the pills he needs to keep his leukemia at bay. The cost: $7,676, three times more than when he began taking the pills in 2001. Over the years he’s paid more than $140,000 of his retirement savings to cover his share of the drug’s price. “People with this condition are being taken advantage of by the pharmaceutical industry,” says Harford. “They haven’t improved the drug; they haven’t done anything but keep manufacturing it. How do they justify it?”

By Jordan Rau; Kaiser Health News ~ May 07, 2014

Two major safety shortcomings in America’s hospitals—the frequency with which patients get hurt during their stays and the large number who are readmitted—have decreased as government penalties and other programs targeting them kick in.

The Obama administration credited the new quality initiatives created by the federal health law. But some of the improvements in patient safety preceded that law. Even with the improvements, one out of eight patients is injured during their time in the hospital.

By Matthew Campbell & Jeffrey McCracken; Bloomberg ~ May 07, 2014

AT&T Inc. (T), the second-biggest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, is in talks to buy satellite-television company DirecTV (DTV), people with knowledge of the situation said.

DirecTV is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as it explores a sale, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. DirecTV has a market value of $45 billion after rising 43 percent in the past year.

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s plan to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. — to create an even bigger provider of both TV and Internet in the U.S. — is accelerating the need for consolidation in the rest of the industry. Meanwhile, the pool of pay-TV customers is peaking as viewers increasingly watch video online, making fast broadband connections a key offering.