Source: Kaiser Health News The head of Aetna Inc., the nation’s third-largest health insurer, said he supports insurance exchanges, even though he questioned their sustainability earlier this month and lost money in the marketplaces last year. Aetna Chief Executive Mark Bertolini said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell called him Feb. 1 shortly […]
Read moreSource: The New York Times With billions in taxpayer dollars at stake, the Obama administration has taken a “passive” approach to identifying potential fraud involving the president’s health care law, nonpartisan congressional investigators say in a report released Wednesday. While the Government Accountability Office stopped short of alleging widespread cheating in President Barack Obama’s signature […]
Read moreSource: Los Angeles Times The notion that mobs of Americans are actively plotting to cheat the Affordable Care Act by waiting until they get sick and then finding an excuse to sign up for health insurance is cherished by two groups: anti-Obamacare conservatives and insurance companies. As we’ve pointed out in the past, neither group […]
Read moreSource: The New York Times Zenefits, a San Francisco health insurance start-up facing regulatory scrutiny, plans to lay off 250 people starting Friday, David Sacks, the chief executive, says. The cuts will mostly affect the company’s sales teams and represent about 17 percent of employees. “This reduction enables us to refocus our strategy, rebuild in […]
Read moreSource: California Healthline The California legislature Monday approved a new health care tax, capping a months-long quest to safeguard over $1 billion in annual Medi-Cal funding the federal government had threatened to take away. The three-year tax on managed care organizations is expected to bring in nearly $1.4 billion a year to fund Medi-Cal, the […]
Read moreSource: The Wall Street Journal Federal regulators proposed what they said was a slight rise in payments for insurers that offer private Medicare plans, a closely watched figure as this coverage becomes increasingly central to the companies’ business. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated that the Medicare Advantage rate proposal represented a 1.35% […]
Read moreSource: Forbes The move by insurance companies to sell more HMOs and health plans with narrow lists of medical care providers–particularly on public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act–has doctors calling for state legislation and closer scrutiny of insurer networks by insurance commissioners and the Obama administration. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of […]
Read moreSource: The Sacramento Bee A $2.4 billion managed-care organization tax package awaiting votes in the California Legislature reflects the heavy imprint of the state’s health insurance industry, which pushed for major changes to avoid any tax hit that could be passed on to customers. The approach has earned the backing of the California Chamber of […]
Read moreSource: The Washington Post During the two years before the disastrous opening of HealthCare.gov, federal officials in charge of creating the online insurance marketplace received 18 written warnings that the mammoth project was mismanaged and off course but never considered postponing its launch, according to government investigators. The warnings included a series of 11 scathing […]
Read moreSource: San Jose Mercury News With Covered California’s announcement Wednesday that 1.57 million Californians selected health plans during its third open enrollment period, at least one health care expert believes that the nation’s bellwether state in implementing the Affordable Care Act is now essentially running in place. Although the latest numbers don’t say how many […]
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