Chris Anderson
Citing continued sluggish increases in healthcare utilization, Aetna yesterday posted a third quarter profit of $523.2 million, or $1.55 per share, a per share increase of 11 percent over the third quarter of 2011 when the company posted profits of $1.40 per share.
Amid continued assertions by right-leaning politicians that full implementation of the Affordable Care Act will lead to significant job losses and stymie economic growth, the Urban Institute has released a study using Massachusetts as a model that predicts there will be little net effect to jobs and the overall economy if health reform is fully implemented.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week filed a proposed settlement in the class-action lawsuit, Jimmo vs. Sebelius, which challenged the long-standing "improvement standard", which the lawsuit contends illegally denies Medicare benefits for a range of skilled nursing and home health services.
Showing it is forging ahead to build a healthcare network that will eventually not include UPMC, Highmark earlier this week committed $65 million to acquire Erie, Penn.-based St. Vincent's Health System.
Flexing its muscle with the healthcare buying power of 1.4 million employees, Wal-Mart last week announced it was contracting with six healthcare organizations nationwide to provide its health plan covered employees with no out-of-pocket costs for specific heart, spine and transplant surgeries.
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have announced they will work together to implement the National Diabetes Prevention Program, a program aimed at preventing type 2 diabetes in people identified as having prediabetes.
UnitedHealth Group announced yesterday that it would pay $4.9 billion to buy a 90 percent stake in Brazilian healthcare company Anil Participacoes S.A., the country's largest private insurer and operator of health clinics serving more than 5 million people.
The Medicare Strike Force unsealed indictments against 91 people in seven different cities who are accused of fraudulent billing to Medicare to the tune of $429.2 million.
Nonprofit health provider and insurance organization HealthPartners and Park Nicollet Health Care announced in late August they would combine operations in a move that would create the second largest healthcare system in Minnesota and one that also operates a 1.5 million-member strong health plan.
While much attention has been paid to the role state health insurance exchanges will play in health reform, a second, quieter movement also created under the Affordable Care Act has been taking place and one that could play as significant a role in the states as the exchanges themselves - the formation of new, non-profit health insurers called Consumer Oriented and Operated Plans (CO-OPs).