Articles

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Q&A

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act cleared a big cloud of uncertainty for employers, but with just 18 months before the most significant provisions of the law kick in, many questions remain. Three benefits consultants from Indianapolis-based Gregory & Appel Insurance—Bob Miller, Mike Miles and Karl Ahlrichs—sat down to discuss what the future looks like for employer health benefits.

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WellPoint rivals to keep parts of health care law

Some of the nation's biggest health insurers will keep some popular parts of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul even if the law fails to survive U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny later this month. Indianapolis-based WellPoint will wait for the court ruling.

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Employers slow to act on health reform

Even though employers expect the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down at least some of the 2010 health reform law later this month, few are actually doing any contingency planning.

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Price hikes offset slower health care use

Newly available data from private health insurance plans show that price hikes by hospitals, doctors and drug companies have kept employer spending rising recently even as their employees and dependents have moderated their consumption of health care services.

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Justices grill both sides in IU Health case

Much of the nearly 45 minutes of arguments and questioning on May 10 involved the justices and the lawyers for both parties trying unsuccessfully to apply various scenarios from the retail world of commerce to health care pricing.

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State’s high court to weigh hospital bills

The Indiana Supreme Court this week will consider whether hospital billing practices should be put on trial. The state’s highest court will hear oral arguments Thursday in a case in which two uninsured patients have sued Indiana University Health for charging them much higher prices than it would have charged insured patients.

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Health insurers could pay $16.5M in rebates

Health insurance customers in Indiana will get an estimated $16.5 million in rebates this year, but the average amount received per person will be less than the national average and less than 3 percent of the total cost of coverage.

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