Sweeping changes phase in slowly for most, but insurers, hospitals, drug companies, employers, workers, medical device makers
and more will eventually feel impact.
Drugmakers and insurers could gain millions of customers under the legislation, but the industry also will pay new fees and
face stricter rules that may shrink profit and fuel mergers.
To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400 billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it
from a new Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000.
Former WellPoint Inc. leader Larry Glasscock has joined the board of directors of the Indianapolis-based real estate giant.
Indianapolis-based health insurer expects revenue, profit to fall as persistently high unemployment reduces employer-sponsored
insurance enrollment.
Blue Cross of California has been ordered to reimburse a man $206,000 after he paid for his own liver transplant.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health insurer based on membership, spent $1.2 million lobbying
the federal government in the fourth quarter of 2009 as it weighed in on several topics tied to the health care overhaul debate.
WellPoint Inc.’s Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Connecticut may constrain competition through contracts that require
that the insurer receives hospital discounts at least as favorable as any provided to a competitor.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius met at the White House with the CEOs of Indianapolis-based WellPoint,
Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, as well as several state insurance commissioners.
A consumer watchdog group filed a lawsuit Monday against WellPoint’s California subsidiary on behalf of policyholders, claiming
they were pushed to take coverage with fewer benefits and higher deductibles.
The California attorney general has demanded documents from several health insurers, including Indianapolis' WellPoint,
believing that their rate-setting and claims practices might be illegal.
While insurers get the blame for rising health-care costs for consumers, surging fees from hospitals and the growing dominance
of such providers may be just as responsible for driving up expenses, according to a new study examining California's
market.
Carmel-based insurer Conseco Inc. has been profitable for four straight quarters.
Amid attacks from Democrats over high executive salaries, Angela Braly testified in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that big
insurance-premium increases are
the result of growing price tags for hospital care and pharmaceuticals.
California lawmakers grilled Anthem Blue Cross executives on Tuesday about their plan to boost individual insurance premiums
by as much as 39 percent, only to hear them blame the economy and a broken health care system.
Executives are scheduled to testify Tuesday before a California legislative committee and on Wednesday before a U.S. House
of Representatives committee about big premium increases.
California’s insurance regulator said Monday his office has found more than 700 violations by the state’s largest for-profit
health insurer, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint.
Obama, seeking to break an impasse over health-care legislation, proposes a plan that includes the first Medicare tax on unearned
income such as capital gains and higher fees on drugmakers.
President Obama’s latest push for a health care overhaul could drive health plans around the country into insolvency, according
to an insurance trade group.
At the heart of the debate is the question of what should be a fair profit for health insurers. WellPoint CEO Angela Braly
will likely be grilled on the issue when she appears at a Congressional hearing Wednesday.
