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.
Attorney general seeks more details on the breach, which may have compromised financial and health information on almost 500,000
people. He also calls on the Indianapolis-based insurer to provide affected customers with credit monitoring and theft protection
services.
The program currently includes 1,200 physicians—about 10 percent of all doctors in Indiana.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. said Wednesday that its California subsidiary will dial down rate hikes that drew national outrage earlier this year and helped spark a final push for health care reform.
Caregivers anticipates coping with declining Medicare reimbursements while having to offer insurance to its employees.
When WellPoint Inc. named Angela Braly its CEO three years ago, it touted her experience dealing with politicians and government
regulators. But WellPoint is now the poster child for health insurer bad behavior—credited in Washington with reviving a
dead health reform bill the company opposed.
U.S. regulators may phase in requirements on how much health insurers spend on medical care to avoid pushing plans out of
the market for people who buy their own coverage, WellPoint Inc.’s chief financial officer said Wednesday.
One in five medical claims is processed inaccurately by commercial health insurers—and a unit of Indianapolis-based
WellPoint Inc. does even worse—often leaving physicians shortchanged, according to the nation's largest doctor's
group.
WellPoint plans to build a network of primary care doctors and specialists who will be available any time to consult with
patients.
The Indianapolis-based insurer’s first-quarter spending is 16 percent more than it spent in the same quarter last year and
in the fourth quarter of 2009.
WellPoint Inc.'s announcement of comparative effectiveness research guidelines last week marks a new era for U.S. drugmakers.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer will use studies that compare the effectiveness of one drug against another as a complement
to typical clinical trial research that compares a drug against a placebo sugar pill.
Dr. Rob Stone wants the giant health insurer to convert to not-for-profit status and put him, an advocate of national health
insurance, on the company’s board.
Influential investor sold off all 1.3 million shares in the Indianapolis-based health insurer during the first quarter.
Board member William “Bucky” Bush, uncle of former President George W. Bush, appeared OK after a shortened meeting in which
shareholders approved
a “say-on-pay” proposal. Protesters gathered outside WellPoint’s headquarters after the meeting.
Joe Guzman is a co-founder of Indianapolis-based Ascend USA, the new trade adopted after Guzman merged his
benefits brokerage, Benefits Strategies Inc., with benefits business Steven Goodin. The eight-person firm expects to hire
as many 15 new employees in the next year. Those workers will help Ascend diversify from health benefits into brokering commercial
insurance products.
As physician mergers increase in Indianapolis, a new study has determined that quality at large, multispecialty practices is at
least 5 percent higher and costs are 3.6 percent lower than at small group practices.
The U.S. health overhaul’s mandate that insurers spend 80 percent of premiums on medical care may
need to be loosened
to keep companies from quitting the market for people who buy coverage on their own, state regulators said.
The health law passed by Congress in March will force insurers like WellPoint to give rebates to customers next year if the
companies don’t meet the medical-spending minimums.
CEO of Indianapolis-based health insurer wrote to Obama on Sunday to rebut the president’s criticism that WellPoint seeks
out breast cancer patients to cancel their policies.
The lawsuit filed this week in Marion Superior Court claims Clarian Health charges uninsured patients—or those receiving
treatments not covered by their insurance—unreasonably high prices.
