The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the multistate infant botulism outbreak linked to ByHeart powdered infant formula over on Feb. 26, while health officials continue investigating for the root cause of the contamination. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration said no new cases had been added since December 10 update. The health agencies said “this outbreak is over, but activities to determine the root cause of C. botulinum in ByHeart powdered infant formula continue.” The investigation began in November 2025 after evidence tied the company’s Whole Nutrition formula to infant illnesses. As of February 26,…
Author: Awais
Sarah Boden and Oona Zenda Illustrations by Oona Zenda A woman with multiple sclerosis wanted to be able to walk up the stairs at home without losing her balance. Her doctor prescribed medicine that helped, but then approval from her insurance plan for the drug expired. “Why do I need a prior authorization for something that I am already prior-authorized to take? If my doctor says that they want me on a medication, why does my insurance have another say in that?” — Jaclyn Mayo, Lunenburg, Massachusetts Jaclyn Mayo has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that damages the nervous system…
Everest Group, the global insurance and reinsurance specialist, benefited from a $35 million dividend payment from its Mt. Logan Re Ltd., third-party capitalised sidecar-like structure in 2025, while also earning $7 million of income from its investment into specific Mt. Logan Re cells.It’s a meaningful year-on-year increase in earnings at the Everest Group level from the structure where its third-party reinsurance capital management and insurance-linked securities (ILS) style investment activities occur. 2025’s results sees Everest disclosing earning its highest dividend from Mt. Logan Re yet, reporting $35 million in cash dividends paid to the group. The re/insurer also disclosed that…
New York’s attorney general sued Valve, a video game developer whose franchises include Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Dota, accusing it of promoting illegal gambling and threatening to addict children through its use of “loot boxes.” In a complaint filed on Wednesday in a state court in Manhattan, Attorney General Letitia James said Valve’s loot boxes amounted to “quintessential gambling,” violating the state’s constitution and penal law, with valuable items often hard to win and many items worth pennies. Valve, based in Bellevue, Washington, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Loot boxes let players use real money to buy…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) reported it has secured a settlement agreement with a Virginia information technology services firm that is says discriminated against U.S. workers by advertising jobs with unauthorized citizenship status restrictions. DOJ’s Civil Rights Division alleged that Elegant Enterprise-Wide Solutions Inc. violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when it posted job advertisements generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that included citizenship status restrictions not authorized by law, including language restricting consideration only to applicants with H-1B, OPT, or H-4 visas. The Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER), in the Civil Rights Division, is responsible for…
For more than a decade, insurance companies and physician groups have battled it out over the true meaning of Florida statutes: Are doctors considered pharmacists, allowed to dispense medications to injured workers, often at a higher price? A Florida appeals court this week may have finally answered that question, giving a multimillion-dollar win to employers and carriers that have spent years trying to undo state workers’ compensation regulations that have allowed physician dispensing. “This is huge. It’s not often you see a complete vindication like this,” said Jerry Fogel, a consultant with Imagine Clinical who has been at the center…
Byrd Joins Alliant as Employee Benefits SVP in North Carolina Steve Byrd Backed by over 25 years of experience, Steve Byrd joined Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, as senior vice president within its employee benefits group. Based in North Carolina, Byrd previously served as area vice president, health and welfare consulting, at Gallagher. He is dedicated to helping employers meet corporate goals by reducing administrative burdens, managing risk, and implementing forward-thinking benefits programs. Topics North Carolina Alliant Employee Benefits Was this article valuable? Yes No Here are more articles you may enjoy. Interested in Employee Benefits? Get automatic…
Markel deal set to reshape its underwriting in 2026
A hacker exploited Anthropic PBC’s artificial intelligence chatbot to carry out a series of attacks against Mexican government agencies, resulting in the theft of a huge trove of sensitive tax and voter information, according to cybersecurity researchers. The unknown Claude user wrote Spanish-language prompts for the chatbot to act as an elite hacker, finding vulnerabilities in government networks, writing computer scripts to exploit them and determining ways to automate data theft, Israeli cybersecurity startup Gambit Security said in research published Wednesday. The activity started in December and continued for roughly a month. In all, 150 gigabytes of Mexican government data…
A large Chinese military drone has conducted regular flights over the South China Sea in recent months while transmitting false transponder signals that made it appear to be other aircraft, including a sanctioned Belarusian cargo plane and a British Typhoon fighter jet. Military attaches and security analysts scrutinizing the operations say the flights represent a step-change in China’s grey-zone tactics in the contested South China Sea and appear to be testing possible decoy capabilities in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Since August, at least 23 flights have been logged under the call sign YILO4200, a known long-endurance…
Britain’s ultimate backstop against flood-related losses is planning to rely more on the capital markets, after its first ever catastrophe bond drew a lot of interest from specialist investors including hedge fund Fermat Capital Management. Flood Re, a state-backed insurance program, now plans to “layer up” on cat bonds, said Chief Executive Officer Perry Thomas. The goal is to create a pipeline of bonds that would follow a model used by Pool Re, the UK’s terrorism reinsurance program, he said. Flood Re’s £140 million ($190 million) cat bond, sold last March, reflects the program’s efforts to tap new sources of…
Since launching in 2023, Bishop Street has assembled a portfolio of specialty underwriting businesses through acquisition, including Avid Insurance, Landmark Underwriting, Conifer Insurance Services, Aerospace Insurance Managers, and Verve Services, spanning lines from construction and aviation to transactional liability and specialty auto.
Labcorp’s pathologists will use the software to review, interpret and manage digital images of slides for primary diagnosis.
The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has entered 2026 with significant momentum, driven by an unprecedented surge in catastrophe bond issuance and strong global demand for protection. SCOR Investment Partners believes this robust primary activity will play a critical role in sustaining current spread levels across the market throughout the year.In its most recent market insights report, SCOR Investment Partners, the specialist asset management arm of the French reinsurance firm, noted that as the industry moved into 2026, the pace of cat bond issuance has already accelerated sharply. “January alone brought close to USD 3 billion in new transactions across 9…