State expects to extend Healthy Indiana Plan a year
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services agreed to a waiver that would allow the state to continue the program unchanged for a year.
Health Insurance
Articles
About 1 in 10 firms plans to drop coverage
Even as the rising cost of medical benefits has moderated, 11 percent of Indiana employers with 10 or more workers say they will terminate their medical coverage within the next five years, according to the latest survey from the benefits consulting firm Mercer.
Anthem rolling out 401(k)-style medical benefits
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana will open a new online exchange to Indiana employers on Jan. 1, where workers could purchase medical benefits from a group of plans using a fixed sum of money given them by their employers.
Medicaid expansion could cost $54M a year
A new set of projections released Monday estimates that expanding Medicaid coverage as called for in President Obama’s 2010 health reform law would cost the state government less than $54 million per year on average over the next decade—far lower than projections issued by the actuarial firm hired by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration.
Indiana employers desperate to improve workers’ personal habits
Skyrocketing health care costs prompt search for new ways to improve lifestyle choices.
Analyst: WellPoint CEO search down to two
According to one Wall Street analyst, the search for a new CEO for Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint Inc. is down to two candidates: former Aetna Inc. CEO Ron Williams and Amerigroup Corp. CEO Jim Carlson.
Small biz exposure clouds WellPoint’s future
WellPoint’s average small-employer client has just 8.5 lives covered on its health plan. And firms of that size are far more likely to use the new health insurance exchanges, said WellPoint Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt.
Deal provides peek at Anthem’s narrow networks
A new agreement in Wisconsin provides a glimpse of the kind of “narrow network” arrangements that Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield might attempt in Indiana.
Low enrollment clouds Healthy Indiana Plan
Many Indiana Republicans want to use the Healthy Indiana Plan to expand Medicaid coverage in Indiana to more low-income adults. But the program—which offers health insurance based on health savings accounts to uninsured adults—has managed to attract just one-third of the Hoosiers it was designed for and has cost about twice as much per enrollee as predicted.
WellPoint reorganizes into four business units
Separate Medicare and Medicaid divisions each will sell plans for those government-backed insurance programs. Another will handle commercial and individual business, and a specialty unit will provide dental, vision and disability coverage.
Study: Newly insured to be poorer, less educated
New health insurance coverage created by the 2010 health reform law will attract a lower-income, less-educated and more diverse set of customers than the insurance markets that exist today, according to a new analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers. And that could create challenges for doctors and hospitals trying to care for those patients.
Will Medicaid expansion actually work?
It would be “absurd” and a “travesty” for Indiana not to expand its Medicaid program, according to two local hospital officials. And yet other health care leaders do not expect expanded Medicaid coverage to provide nearly as much help to uninsured Hoosiers as hoped.
WellPoint likely to go outside for chief
While WellPoint Inc. and its predecessors have a history of grooming new CEOs in-house, the next leader of the health insurance giant is likely to be an outsider, according to interviews with more than a half dozen former directors and officers of the company.
Bill for Medicaid expansion? $516M a year
If Indiana expands its Medicaid program as called for under President Obama’s health reform law, it likely will hike state spending on the program an extra 13.5 percent—or $516 million annually—by 2020, according to the latest projections from Seattle-based actuarial firm Milliman Inc.
High-deductible premiums rising, too
Since 2007, premiums for high-deductible health plans’ family coverage have grown 32 percent—compared with 30 percent among all health plans, according to survey data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
WellPoint spends $50M to burnish brand
The Indianapolis-based health insurer expects the purchase of health insurance to look and feel much more like online retailing than ever before, where brand name, along with price and convenience, win the day.
Cutting bills fuels growth of Health Systems International
Health Systems is on pace this year for nearly $50 million in revenue, up from $42 million last year and just $4.5 million eight years ago. The Indianapolis company processes claims for health insurers when patients receive out-of-network care.
Governors aside, feds building health care exchanges
The feds may be gaining on GOP governors who've balked at carrying out a key part of the health care overhaul law. Opponents of the law say they won't set up new private health insurance exchanges. But increasingly it's looking like Washington will do it for them.
Health insurers’ anti-fraud bid seeks to ease profit-limit rule
The Obama administration Thursday announced a partnership with the industry in which WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and other insurers may try to share more billing data with the government to root out fraud.
Insurance company key to Franciscan-American Health partnership
Hospital system’s health insurance unit has IT infrastructure that will allow physicians to participate in Medicare’s shared savings program.