Health insurers won fairly broad leeway under key rules suggested by state insurance commissioners that will govern what kinds of expenses count toward meeting a new federal threshold to spend at least 80 percent of premiums dollars on medical care.
The failure by state regulators to decide how much insurers must spend on patient care is scaring investors from health-plan stocks and complicating insurance company decisions.
Indianapolis-area hospitals spent billions on construction in the past decade and increasingly tried to poach patients from one another’s territories. Yet last year—one of the worst economically in recent history—21 of 26 hospitals still were able to show operating profits.
The bill has the potential to affect more than 250,000 Indiana workers in up to 24 categories of licensed professionals, including doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, chiropractors, hypnotists, dietitians and even veterinarians.
It’s been a tough year for major health insurers, but Barron’s magazine predicts a big comeback for Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and its rival UnitedHealth Group.
Angie’s List has partnered with Tennessee-based Healthcare Blue Book to give its members price information before they receive medical care.
Ben Bernanke may be worried about deflation in the economy, but there’s certainly no chance of it in health care and
insurance. Employers’ health plan premiums surged another 8 percent this year, according to results from a massive survey
by Indianapolis-based United Benefit Advisors.
Changes in reimbursement could fuel market for WoundVision’s product.
The health care industry is responding to reforms that will pay doctors bonuses if they provide high-quality care and save
Medicare money.
WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and three other health insurers, criticized by Democrats during the health care reform
debate, are seeking to influence how the new law will be implemented, and possibly change it, by campaigning for supportive
congressional candidates.
Dr. Ben Park joined Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1993 to start a large group of primary care physicians who would
institute a concept called managed care. Now American Health Network is
well-positioned to take advantage of the new version of managed care, called accountable care.
Marion County survey finds 80 percent of respondents in debt to local hospitals, with about half saying they were never informed
about the availability
of charity care or payment plans.
Unemployment in Indiana has moderated slightly, but more than 313,000 Hoosiers remain out of work. And with attempts to extend
benefits for the jobless stalled in Congress, it’s likely more people will struggle to pay medical bills.
WellPoint Inc. has about $800 million riding on one arcane rule: how to calculate a medical loss ratio. The ratio quantifies
the percentage of customers’ premiums were spent on medical care, rather than overhead or profits.
More than 100 staff members of Indiana Medical Associates LLC likely will land at one of two area hospital systems. The move
mirrors national and local consolidation of practices with hospitals.
Caregivers anticipates coping with declining Medicare reimbursements while having to offer insurance to its employees.
U.S. health insurers are “moving towards an oligopoly,” a process that this year’s health-care overhaul
will accelerate, the investor-relations chief at WellPoint Inc. said Thursday.
Hospitals continued to be a stable and slightly growing source of jobs and wages in Indiana—for better and for worse.
The sector paid $7.3 billion to 127,000 Hoosiers in 2008, according to the latest data from the American Hospital Association.
Physician offices will begin receiving payments from the Medicare that are 21.3-percent below
what they’ve been getting so far this year. Doctors still expect Congress to reverse the payment cuts, but physicians
and the Medicare program will have to reprocess claims, costing both extra money.
The Indiana Family and Social Services told Area Agencies on Aging that a 15-percent cut in funding for the program known
as CHOICE will save about $7.3 million from the program’s $48.8 million annual budget.
