The insurance industry sharply escalated its criticism of the Senate health care bill Sunday, charging that the legislation
would shift costs to privately insured people, raising the price of a typical policy by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars
annually.
Shares of WellPoint Inc. partially recovered Friday morning after a plunge was touched off Thursday by gathering momentum behind health care reform and talk of a windfall-profit tax by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
With a national unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent eroding its customer base, WellPoint Inc. is cutting at least 30
middle-management employees and reshuffling its corporate organization, according to internal memos obtained by IBJ.
The health reform bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., would help pay for expanded health insurance coverage
by levying fees of $13 billion a year on the health care industry. The fees would deliver a hefty bill to just
about all of Indiana’s major health care companies. But how they’re reacting to the fees is all over the map.
Demonstrators on Wednesday backed Maine’s insurance superintendent for rejecting a request from the state’s largest private health insurer seeking an 18-percent rate hike for its individual insurance plans.
The Indiana Division of Aging wants to change Medicaid rates to nursing homes to reward quality care and penalize the lack
of it, leaving the industry divided over whether to support the groundbreaking rule or to seek revisions and a slower phase-in.
Most business groups cheered when Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., introduced a health reform bill with no so-called public option,
a controversial government-run insurance plan for working adults. But there’s a big group that would like
to see it back on the table—hospitals.
Health insurer WellPoint said today that it may trim some more jobs as part of a push to become more efficient next year.
Employees at five different companies collectively lost 805 pounds over six weeks this summer. They also
raised $805 for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Central Indiana.
If President Barack Obama gets what he wants in his health care plan — covering all Americans and barring insurers from
denying coverage — some analysts say individuals could wind up paying higher premiums.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels outlined his concerns about some of the health care proposals being debated in Congress in a letter
sent to the state’s congressional delegation and released by his office yesterday.
Nine months after being suspended as a contractor for the federal Medicare program, WellPoint Inc. is back in the game.
A consumer group says health insurers UnitedHealth and WellPoint pressured their employees to contact members of Congress
and lobby against health care reform proposals that the companies disagreed with.
A health care reform push that aims at the insurance industry misses a much bigger target in its quest to lower rising costs,
WellPoint Inc. CEO Angela Braly said in a speech.
The St. Francis hospital system has finalized a multiyear agreement with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana, ending
a months-long dispute over insurance-reimbursement costs, the parties said yesterday.
Arcadia Resources Inc. narrowed its losses in its most recent quarter as it started to accelerate sales in its highly-touted
DailyMed program, the company said today.
Indianapolis physicians are mixed on the merits of a government-run, "public" health insurance plan. How reforms
might affect their pay is another major concern.
With the Obama administration backing away from a government-run, "public" plan, the insurance
industry faces a much smaller threat in the form of privately run insurance co-ops.
Companies are helping workers age 65 and above decide whether to forgo their company health insurance and shift to Medicare.
Medicare is becoming more attractive as costs of company policies rise.
Indianapolis-based Monarch Beverage is among hundreds of central Indiana companies that
have introduced wellness programs to counteract the rising costs of health insurance and Worker’s Compensation.
