Latest Health Insurance Headlines
All the headlines from our Health Insurance Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Some Uninsured Americans Turn to Daily Deal Sites for Health Care
Dec 31 2011 // The last time Mark Stella went to the dentist he didn’t need an insurance card. Instead, he pulled out a Groupon. Stella, a small business owner, canceled his health insurance plan more than three years ago when his...
New York Unions Sue State Over Retiree Health Insurance Costs
Dec 29 2011 // Unions representing state workers in New York have filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Cuomo administration challenging an increase in health insurance contributions for thousands of retirees. According to the...
Coventry Health Care to Run Nebraska Health Insurance Pool
Dec 29 2011 // Coventry Health Care of Nebraska will be the new health plan administrator for Nebraska’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Pool. The state program is designed to provide health insurance for Nebraskans who can’t...
Consumer Group Hammers Mercury Rate Increase Filing in California
Dec 22 2011 // A California consumer group is challenging a rate hike bid by Mercury Insurance because the group claims the company is trying to pass along the costs of its political campaigning. But the insurer says those costs are not...
Internet Business Told to Stop Misrepresenting Kansas Health Exchange
Dec 22 2011 // An Internet business operating out of Washington state has been told to cease misrepresenting itself as linked to any official Kansas health insurance exchange. Kansas Commissioner of Insurance Sandy Praeger has ordered a...
D.C. Commissioner Recommends Reviewing Policies for Winter Activities
Dec 20 2011 // Washington, D.C.’s top insurance regulator is advising consumers to review their insurance policies and see whether they are covered for common winter activities. William White, commissioner for the District of...
Illinois Warns of Fraudulent Health Insurance
Dec 19 2011 // The chief executive of a company allegedly selling fraudulent health insurance says he is fully cooperating with the Illinois Department of Insurance to resolve the matter. Donald Chew, president and CEO of ReAssurance...
Deficit Poses the Biggest Threat to U.S. Healthcare
Dec 19 2011 // A mounting U.S. deficit could pose a much greater threat to the survival of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms than either the Supreme Court or 2012 elections. Many health experts say innovations in...
Louisiana Asks for Reconsideration of Medical Loss Ratio Waiver Denial
Dec 16 2011 // Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon is requesting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reconsider its denial of the medical loss ratio (MLR) waiver that the state requested earlier this...
Well-Meaning Decisions Yield Unintended Consequences
Dec 5 2011 // It would be difficult to find an industry more competitive than the insurance business. Our long-term results prove that to be true. Far more often than not, the industry loses money on what is supposed to be our core...
Medicare Liens and Settlements Following United States v. Stricker
Dec 5 2011 // Reaching a settlement amount between the carrier and a plaintiff over a personal injury claim is sometimes the easiest part of a settlement where Medicare liens are involved. Medicare is a payer of last resort, which...
Arkansas Regulators no Longer Pursuing State-run Health Insurance Exchange
Dec 2 2011 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford has announced that planning efforts for an Arkansas-run health benefits exchange have ended. He stated that legislative opposition to developing an Arkansas exchange has quashed...
Most Health Insurers Meet Controversial Medical Loss Ratio
Dec 1 2011 // Most U.S. health insurers last year would have satisfied the much-disputed spending rules under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, according to a new report by a congressional watchdog agency. The rules...
Feds Reject Indiana Request for Health Care Waiver
Nov 30 2011 // The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has rejected Indiana’s bid for an exemption from federal health care overhaul rules that require insurers selling policies to individuals to essentially dedicate 80...
Texas Regulator Abstains from MLR Vote; Says State Requested Waiver
Nov 29 2011 // The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has adopted a resolution urging Congress to amend the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to ensure...
Doctors Continue to Work While Under Investigation in Louisiana
Nov 22 2011 // Four Louisiana physicians wrote hundreds of bogus prescriptions that powered multimillion-dollar health-care frauds in the Baton Rouge area, according to evidence amassed by the nearly two-year-old local Medicare Fraud...
U.S. Healthcare Cuts Minimal, More Pain Looms
Nov 22 2011 // The breakdown of deficit talks in Congress will exact little pain on the U.S. healthcare industry, but it’s a temporary reprieve from steeper cuts that could be put back on the table in 2013. The failure of the...
Lawmaker: Oklahoma Cannot Wait On Insurance Exchange
Nov 17 2011 // A legislative panel exploring the impact of the new federal health care law on Oklahoma will likely suggest that the state should do the minimum amount required to comply with the act, the committee’s chairman...
Doctors Back ‘Open Market’ Health Insurance Exchanges for States
Nov 16 2011 // The American Medical Association added pressure on U.S. states to steer toward the system that opens doors to all insurers who meet minimum standards as they build up their health insurance exchanges. The influential...
North Dakota House Rejects Health Insurance Exchange
Nov 14 2011 // Angered by a federal health care law that most of them despise, North Dakota House Republicans defeated legislation to give state officials authority over a health insurance marketing agency that the law requires states to...
