Industry Updates
This broad category includes articles concerning health insurance costs, carrier and health plan news, changing benefits technology, and surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others on employee benefits.
Consumers Union wants the Medical Board of California to require doctors who are on probation to notify their patients. The policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports filed a petition last week urging the board to take action. The board is expected to hold a public hearing on the issue at its Oct. 30 meeting ...
An analysis of narrow networks on the Covered California health plan marketplace found that in most cases consumers don’t need to worry that they are trading quality of care for lower costs. While Covered California plans did offer narrower hospital networks, there was no significant relationship between raw network size and performance, according to the ...
Health insurer Aetna’s proposed $37 billion acquisition of smaller rival Humana Inc was approved by the shareholders of both companies. The companies continue to expect the deal to close in the second half of 2016, they said in separate statements on Monday. Aetna in July said it would buy Humana to become the largest provider ...
Blue Shield of California has agreed to limit its premiums for certain policies next year and in 2017, Payers & Providers reports. Background On Oct. 5, the California Department of Managed Health Careissued an order addressing Blue Shield’s premiums and medical loss ratio calculations. DMHC spokesperson Rodger Butler said the agency had “significant concerns with ...
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones slammed Aetna Thursday for an “unreasonable” quarterly rate hike on small-business owners that brings the annual average increase to more than 27 percent. The hike affects small employers that renew their health insurance policies in the fourth quarter — and an estimated 40,000 employees. Dept. of Insurance actuaries reviewed Aetna’s ...
CaliforniaChoice is bullish on expansion of the small-group market. Like its public counterpart, Covered California, the private insurance exchange is prepared to welcome employers with 51 to 100 employees into the program Jan. 1, 2016. California law still requires this group to be considered “small employers” for the purpose of health insurance, starting next year. ...
About half of all American adults get health insurance through their employer, and beginning in 2018, the government will impose heavy financial penalties on any employer-provided health plans it deems overly generous. The tax was designed to rein in health care inflation and raise tens of billions of dollars. Former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., a ...
Insurance brokers who sold health plans through a failed nonprofit carrier will no longer be paid commissions. Nevada Health CO-OP has stopped commission payments effective immediately, according to a Friday notice from an attorney working on behalf of the Nevada Division of Insurance. “Preliminary review indicates that (Nevada Health CO-OP) is in hazardous financial condition,” ...
Although President Obama signed the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act this week, many employers the legislation is intended to protect remain in limbo. The PACE Act nullifies the Affordable Care Act’s originally scheduled 2016 expansion of the threshold of “small group” for health insurance purposes from employers with 50 or fewer employees and ...
The Nevada Division of Insurance has announced the launch of its Fall Health Insurance Awareness campaign, saying the month of October is a good time to begin thinking about a 2016 health insurance policy. Open Enrollment is just around the corner, starting Nov. 1 and running through Jan. 31, 2016. That is why the Division ...