In this new age of health care, ushered in by President Obama’s signing in March of a sweeping health care reform law, health care players are encouraged to remove the gloves if they want to reap the benefits of reform.
Major health insurers, including Indianapolis-based Anthem, are being ordered to a hearing to explain why they are eliminating child-only policies.
Health insurers won fairly broad leeway under key rules suggested by state insurance commissioners that will govern what kinds of expenses count toward meeting a new federal threshold to spend at least 80 percent of premiums dollars on medical care.
The failure by state regulators to decide how much insurers must spend on patient care is scaring investors from health-plan stocks and complicating insurance company decisions.
The company said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services renewed its durable medical equipment administrative contract for a region that covers Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Indiana Insurance Commissioner Carol Cutter passed away Sept. 6 in Indianapolis after a months-long struggle with illness. She was 67. Cutter had been on leave from the department since January.
Health care software firm RealMed Corp. will keep its base of operations in Indianapolis after being acquired by health information exchange provider Availity LLC of Jacksonville, Fla. Terms of the deal announced Wednesday were not disclosed.
Sealed-bid auction attracts a half-dozen bids from interested owners that are “more centrally located than you might think,”
said the listing agent.
The 25,000-square-foot mansion once owned by Conseco Inc. founder Stephen Hilbert was listed five years
ago at $20 million—and
about half that in recent months. Now the property is being sold in a sealed-bid auction, and offers are due Friday.
Health insurers led by WellPoint Inc. are backing Republicans with campaign donations by an 8-to-1 margin, favoring the party
that’s promised to repeal President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul if it wins back Congress.
McGowan Insurance was founded in 1930 by William McGowan, who led it until his death in 1977.
The California Department of Insurance said Wednesday it approved a rate increase averaging about 14 percent for Anthem Blue
Cross customers. The department also OK’d a nearly 19-percent increase for Blue Shield of California.
The state will use the money to review proposed premium increases. It also will look at best practices in other states to
identify areas where it can strengthen health insurance laws and rules.
The mandate from a U.S. bankruptcy judge will supply retroactive benefits to more than 6,000 Visteon Corp. retirees who lost
insurance coverage after
the
Michigan-based auto-parts maker filed for bankruptcy in 2009, including 2,100 workers in Indiana.
Proceeds from the sale will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, including debt repayment, the company
said in a prospectus.
The Carmel-based life and health insurer earned $33.1 million in the three months ended June 30, or 12 cents per diluted share.
Excluding losses on investments and retired debt, the company would have earned 16 cents per share.
WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and three other health insurers, criticized by Democrats during the health care reform
debate, are seeking to influence how the new law will be implemented, and possibly change it, by campaigning for supportive
congressional candidates.
The Indianapolis-based insurer of truck and car fleets earned $5 million in the quarter ended June 30, down from $14.2 million
in the same quarter a year ago.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. became the third U.S. health insurer this month to increase its 2010 profit forecast, stirring
investor concern that state and federal regulators may increase scrutiny of industry pricing.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer raised its full-year profit forecast after it earned $722.4 million, 4 percent higher
than during the same quarter a year ago. Revenue and health plan membership fell.
