Daniels leads guvs’ health-care revolt
Boy does Gov. Mitch Daniels have an ultimatum for President Obama: Wave off the health reform law or else I’ll do nothing to help while it wreaks havoc on Hoosier citizens.
Health Insurance
Articles
Health insurance brokers set for shakeout
Health insurance brokers, who match up employers with health insurance policies, are about to have a brighter light shone on the commissions they earn from insurers. The likely result: Commissions will fall or flatline and, eventually, fall away in favor of fee-based business models.
Judge’s ruling raises uncertainty for health care execs
After a federal judge in Florida struck down the entire health reform law, investors shrugged. But the uncertainty for executives in health care companies increased.
Execs from WellPoint, peers meet to hone health-law lobby
Top executives from WellPoint Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. are meeting almost monthly with their counterparts from Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc. in an informal lobbying alliance aimed at blunting parts of the health-care law, say sources with knowledge of the sessions.
WellPoint profit better than analyst estimates
Excluding special charges, WellPoint’s profit fell 2 percent to $524.7 million in the fourth quarter from $536 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. But earnings per share improved thanks to stock buybacks.
Q&A
Chris Sears is a health care and employee-benefits attorney at Ice Miller LLP in Indianapolis. He spoke about how employers are sizing up health insurance reforms that hit in 2014, which would set up government-subsidized insurance as a new option for workers but also would penalize most employers if they stop sponsoring employee health benefits.
LAMKIN: Health care reform is opportunity to reorganize services
Indiana should take advantage of the opportunity to build a comprehensive exchange.
By wide margin, Anthem still city’s largest insurer
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s share of the Indianapolis area has leveled off, even though it still insures more than half the commercial market—or three times as much as its nearest competitor.
WellPoint’s New York rate hike to face scrutiny
WellPoint Inc. and other U.S. health insurers will have to provide justification for any increases to customers’ premiums of more than 10 percent next year, according to federal regulations published Tuesday.
WellPoint spent $1.1M lobbying feds in third quarter
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. spent $1.1 million lobbying the federal government in the third quarter, as it focused on several issues tied to the health care overhaul Congress passed in March.
Clarian off to slow start in insurance
Clarian Health got few takers in its first year offering a health care benefits program to large employers, but the Indianapolis-based hospital system is undeterred in growing its budding insurance services business.
Health insurance investors unfazed by court ruling
This week’s ruling by a federal judge could force Congress to rework the new health law to avoid a health insurance market collapse. But the decision had little to no effect on investor sentiment toward WellPoint Inc. and its peers.
Swing in governors could help WellPoint deal with reform
Rick Scott of Florida will get another chance next month to derail the law President Obama signed in March when he and 21 other Republican governors-elect are sworn in just as states begin implementing details of the legislation the candidates campaigned against.
AHLRICHS: Turn health reform into pragmatic answers
Health reform entrepreneurship could brand Indiana as productive, healthy place for employers to operate.
Study: Indianapolis high-priced hospital market
Indianapolis-area hospitals have negotiated reimbursement rates with private health insurers that are two and three times higher than those paid by the federal Medicare program, suggesting the hospitals have the upper hand over insurers, according to a new study.
Nurse practitioners get some autonomy
Could nurse practitioners get a promotion in the medical field? At least one health insurer is treating them like doctors now.
Principal Financial shift to result in local layoffs
Financial giant Principal Financial Group Inc. is exiting the health insurance business, a move that will cost 60 Indianapolis workers their jobs.
WellPoint, Aetna led U.S. insurers in coverage denial
Until all consumers are required to buy health insurance, coverage restrictions are needed to keep people from gaming the system, insurers say.
WellPoint, other insurers’ stock buybacks concern investors
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and competing U.S. health insurers approved $10 billion in stock repurchases in the past year, a concern to investors who say buybacks failed to increase share prices and who want more spent on dividends.
Insurers cautious on accountable care
Health insurers, including locally based WellPoint Inc. and Advantage Health Solutions, have been looking to work with health care providers to form accountable-care organizations. But they also worry that the accountable-care concept will become nothing more than a negotiating tactic by hospitals and doctors.