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…
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…
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…
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…
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan got only a portion of the insurance reforms it sought in the Michigan legislature, at least in part because of opposition from its competitor health plans. But the c…
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…
Texas' health plans have long benefitted from the Lone Star State's mandatory generic dispensing law, but have gone beyond that to achieve significant generic utilization and subsequent saving…