When Congress passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act this summer, health plans operating in the Medicare arena began to brace for the changes. Wisconsin health plans operating…
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…
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield's planned conversion to for-profit status stands a markedly better chance this time, as it would raise $1 billion or more that New Jersey could use to launch propose…
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…
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'…
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…
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…
Maryland has become one of the first states to pass laws regulating the licensing and transparency of pharmacy benefits managers operating in the state. The bills were supported by the Pharmaceutical…
Passage of the state's new Cover Florida program is likely to put some of the 3.8 million uninsured residents into health insurance, but critics question how much help the low-premium/limited bene…
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…
Aetna is among national insurers working to chip away at the market dominance of the Regence Group and Premera Blue Cross in Oregon and Washington. Oregon's Medicaid expansion program, called Oreg…