TGIF

The Washington Post reports that

Federal retirees will receive a cost-of-living adjustment to their annuities of 1.7 percent in January, which translates into an increase of about $50 a month on average for those who retired under the older of the two main federal retirement systems, and about $20 a month on average for those retired under the newer system.

Today, the pay.gov website initiated a new page to collect headcount data from FEHB and other health plans so it can invoice those plans for the ACA’s transitional reinsurance fee.  The deadline for submitting the necessary information on this site is November 15, 2014.  This fee is designed to collect $25 billion over three to support the carriers in the ACA’s health insurance marketplaces and reimburse the U.S. Treasury for $5 billion spent on an early retiree reinsurance fund which the government prohibited FEHB plans from accessing.

Karen DeSalvo, who spoke at the WEDI conference on Tuesday as head of the Office of National Coordinator of health information technology switchted jobs today. She is now HHS’s point person for Ebola according to this ihealthbeat.com report. Her deputy also is resigning effective at the end of next month.

Drug Channels adds perspective to CVS Health’s new business venture, a PBM retail pharmacy network composed entirely of pharmacies like CVS Health and Target which don’t sell tobacco products.