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.
There has been a noticeable uptick in the level of health care real estate development activity this year.
The Obama administration has asked state regulators to double-check premium hikes from Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint
Inc. after an audit found problems with proposed California increases.
The Carmel-based life and health insurer earned $33.9 million in the quarter, more than 38 percent higher than during the
same quarter a year earlier. Nearly all of that increase, however, was due to lower losses on investments and debt modifications.
Anthem Blue Cross withdrew plans to raise health insurance rates for Californians by as much as 39 percent after an independent
audit determined the company’s justification for raising premiums was based on flawed data.
The February earthquake in Chile sent first-quarter profit tumbling 90 percent at Indianapolis-based property and casualty
insurer Baldwin & Lyons Inc.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer was helped in first quarter by a mild flu season, but it now expects to lose nearly
700,000 customers by year end.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer announced Tuesday afternoon it will be the first company to adopt stricter standards
on canceling
policies, which are contained in the health reform bill passed in March.
Dr. Stanley Adkins is chief medical officer of Indianapolis-based AmeriVeriCR, a startup that uses software to review medical
claims for errors. With health care reform and a new, larger set of
diagnosis codes phasing in over the next few years, AmeriVeri is betting that demand for its service will increase.
Indianapolis-based health insurer trades jabs with U.S. health secretary after Reuters story claims insurer deliberately cancels
coverage for breast cancer patients.
The two largest U.S. health insurance companies, UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., and WellPoint Inc., based in Indianapolis,
sell Advantage plans.
In January, Anthem Blue Cross notified many individual policyholders that their rates would rise as much as 39 percent March
1. After a public outcry, the company announced a two-month delay. Now that is on hold, too.
UnitedHealthcare believes a program tested in the Indianapolis area will help it save money on claims.
Insurers like WellPoint Inc. should be required to get U.S. approval to increase premiums, Sens. Diane Feinstein and Tom Harkin
say.
The wife of Indianapolis businessman Steve Hilbert is working with a team of attorneys to determine whether her deceased mother’s
estate can claim the benefit of a life insurance policy issued by Houston-based American General Life Insurance Co.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint “reclassified” more than half a billion dollars of administrative expenses as medical
expenses when it was defining its medical-loss ratio, according to a report released by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller’s
office.
State insurance officials are warning Indiana residents about questionable health insurance policies being offered by companies
touting themselves as associations.
A U.S. mandate forcing insurers led by UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc. to spend 85 percent of revenue from premiums
on medical care is the newest front in the battle between the Obama administration and companies over industry profits.
