The end of private fee-for-service Medicare plans by 2011 has health plans moving to re-shape their Medicare Advantage strategies, building networks where it makes sense to do so, or retreating from s…
Florida insurers are seeing a marked movement toward self-insured health benefit designs, and the worsening economy in the state could keep the momentum toward self insurance under way for some time….
The managed care market in Oregon will be shaken up with the awarding of contracts for the Oregon Educators Benefit Board. Winning three-year contracts for medical and pharmacy coverage were Providenc…
PPOs may come under more regulatory scrutiny from the Texas Department of Insurance. Proposals being floated would require PPOs operating in Texas to have a certificate of authority and allow the TDI…
Hurricane Katrina may have shaken up the hospital and physician supply in New Orleans in 2005, but the disaster has not had a long-term negative effect on health plans in the region. Health plans have…
Tufts Health Plan wants to compete in the Rhode Island market, setting the stage for a showdown with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, the state's no. 1 insurer, and UnitedHealthcare o…
While all the major insurers in California now have electronic personal health records in place, only about 5 percent of health plan members are taking advantage of them and the industry is struggling…
The state agency that manages the Medicaid managed care program is keeping seven of its current managed care plans in its latest procurement, and it will add a subsidiary of Centene Corp. to its line-…
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois is adding a new twist to its HMO product, in the form of a new offering in the Blue Edge suite pairing the HMO with a Health Reimbursement Arrangement. Illinois'…
Healthy Indiana Plan, which was created in 2007, is experiencing one of the fastest launches of any Medicaid-expansion program in the country. By mid-2008, the program had more than 14,000 Hoosiers en…
Kaiser Permanente of Colorado has agreed to provide $155 million in premium credits to Colorado consumers, translating to a $287 credit to individual and family plan members in 2009 and 2010. The agre…
Iowa's governor has signed a healthcare reform law that increases coverage for children with family incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The legislature also expanded the abilit…
Health plans in the Carolinas are managing specialty pharmacy costs at virtually every step of the process, from negotiating prices with manufacturers to creating special convenient networks. Blue Cro…
Two collaborative efforts involving multiple health insurers in Pennsylvania have the potential to improve the quality of healthcare in the state. The first is a transparency effort involving how care…
TennCare, the large Medicaid managed care program, recently awarded two new contracts to health plans to manage the care for enrollees in west and east portions of the state. The contracts went to Ame…