Commercial membership in California health plans dropped by 12 percent in the first six months of 2008, according to data from HealthLeaders-InterStudy, and insurers are bracing for an additional drop…
Colorado Medicaid officials are asking for legislative approval to expand managed care into Medicaid in a much bigger way by 2010. They propose to phase in the movement to managed care through regions…
Health insurers in the Midwest are coping with the recession by laying off employees, holding the line on pricing and adjusting benefit design to allow employers to take advantage of additional cost-s…
The District of Columbia is targeting CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield in an effort to capture a portion of the large nonprofit's reserves for a new program serving the uninsured. The District has h…
The economic downturn is wreaking havoc on employers nationwide and statewide, leaving insurers grappling with eroding enrollment, and more cost-shifting pressures from healthcare providers. Against t…
Premium increases moderated in the Carolinas in 2008 with health plan costs per employee rising by 6 percent to 10 percent, but the increases are expected to accelerate in the coming months. Brokers a…
Ground zero for job losses is the financial sector in New York, and insurers are bracing for membership declines. The jobless may have a difficult time finding low-cost individual policies in New York…
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama is Goliath in that state's insurance arena, but national plans are picking up Alabama members too. The insurance market is widening in Huntsville and Mobile t…
Minnesota is bucking the national trend with growing HMO enrollment while at the same time defying a national movement to significant growth in self-insured products. Market leader Blue Cross and Blue…
The list of health plans leaving the Ohio Medicaid managed care program continues to grow with WellPoint Inc. leaving the program entirely and WellCare and Centene Corp. pulling their managed care org…
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has made its own in-house provider portal into the go-to site for Medicare elibibility and benefit information, even for those who are not its customers. In…
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…
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…
New York's proposal to curb “fourth tier” drug pricing has health plans alarmed that lawmakers might curb their ability to structure health benefits, particularly in cost-sharing for exp…